The sum of the squares of the first 15 positive integers (1^2 + 2^2 + 3^2 + . . . + 15^2) is equal to 1290. What is the sum of the squares of the second 15 positive integers (16^2 + 17^2 + 18^2 + . . . + 30^2) ?  Answers:
A) 2480	B) 3490	C) 6785	D) 8265	E) 9255

Rationale: you ' ll never need a formula for the sums of squares on the actual gmat . you do n ' t need to use that formula here , though it ' s not all that straightforward to solve without one . two different approaches : 16 ^ 2 + 17 ^ 2 + 18 ^ 2 + . . . + 30 ^ 2 = ( 15 + 1 ) ^ 2 + ( 15 + 2 ) ^ 2 + ( 15 + 3 ) ^ 2 + . . . + ( 15 + 15 ) ^ 2 now we can expand each square ; they are all in the ( x + y ) ^ 2 = x ^ 2 + 2 xy + y ^ 2 pattern . = ( 15 ^ 2 + 2 * 15 + 1 ^ 2 ) + ( 15 ^ 2 + 4 * 15 + 2 ^ 2 ) + ( 15 ^ 2 + 6 * 15 + 3 ^ 2 ) + . . . + ( 15 ^ 2 + 30 * 15 + 15 ^ 2 ) now we have fifteen 15 ^ 2 terms , so adding these gives 15 * 15 ^ 2 = 15 ^ 3 = 3375 . we also have the entire sum 1 ^ 2 + 2 ^ 2 + . . . + 15 ^ 2 , which we know is equal to 1240 . finally adding the middle terms , we have : 2 * 15 + 4 * 15 + 6 * 15 + . . . + 30 * 15 = 15 ( 2 + 4 + 6 + . . . . + 30 ) = 15 * 2 * ( 1 + 2 + 3 + . . . + 15 ) = 15 * 2 * 8 * 15 = 3600 so the sum must be 3375 + 1240 + 3600 = 8215 alternatively , we can use a different factoring pattern . we want to find the value of 30 ^ 2 + 29 ^ 2 + . . . + 17 ^ 2 + 16 ^ 2 . well if we subtract 15 ^ 2 + 14 ^ 2 + . . . . + 2 ^ 2 + 1 ^ 2 from this , the answer will be 1240 less than what we want to find . so if we can find the value of 30 ^ 2 + 29 ^ 2 + . . . + 17 ^ 2 + 16 ^ 2 - ( 15 ^ 2 + 14 ^ 2 + . . . . + 2 ^ 2 + 1 ^ 2 ) then we can add 1240 to get the answer . now grouping the terms above to get differences of squares , we have = ( 30 ^ 2 - 15 ^ 2 ) + ( 29 ^ 2 - 14 ^ 2 ) + . . . + ( 16 ^ 2 - 1 ^ 2 ) and factoring each of these using x ^ 2 - y ^ 2 = ( x + y ) ( x - y ) , we have = 45 * 15 + 43 * 15 + 41 * 15 + . . . + 17 * 15 = 15 ( 45 + 43 + 41 + . . . + 17 ) in brackets we have an equally spaced sum with fifteen terms , which we can evaluate using the familiar formula . so the above equals 15 * 15 * 62 / 2 = 6975 and adding back the 1290 , we get the answer of 8265 . ( ans d )
Answer: D