HELP Maths homework question!!!

[jarvis01]

Please help me...I am a thick Mum who hasn't been to school since the dark ages and haven't got a clue how to help my son with his homework.

Its called all adds up and I suppose is like Sudoko.
He's got to use all the numbers between one and nine once only and the lines have got to add up to 20.
Layout is like this (but as a triangle)

             *
            * *
           *   *
          * * * *

Can anyone give me a clue where to start please?

Thanks

was suppose to be like this
*
* *
* *
* * * *

It won't allow me to put shape in...basically it a triangle
one number on first line
two on second and third lines and four on bottom line

What exactly does it say about the lines adding up to 20? Do you mean the horizontal lines of numbers, this can't be right asthe lines wih only 1 or 2 numbers in can't add up to 20 iyswim

I have a maths degree and can't figure that out!

As described, the first thing that occurs to me is that if you add up all the numbers from 1-9 the total is 45, which split over 4 lines doesn't give 20 on each line. And a triangle with 1+2+3+4 entries needs 10 figures, but you said you can only use 1-9 once.

I'm equally confused!

Actually, I think it must mean three sides of a triangle, each side with four numbers, and the totals of the four numbers come to 20. So the sum of the three sides comes to 60, and so the three corners must come to 15. Will think some more and come back to you...

I think she means a triangle with 1 + 2 + 2 + 4 entries, which does add up to the 9 digits.

Is it like this? -

-A
--B-C-
--D-E-
F-G-H-I

If so, I'd say that A + B + D + F =20
A + C + E + I = 20
F + G + H + I =20 would be what they want you to find

Damn, it's scored through instead of left dashes!

==A==
=B=C=
=D=E=
F=G=H=I

What year is your son in ?

So, he needs to work out which combinations of 4 digits add up to 20, then which digits he's going to have to re-use in more than one sum - those ones will have to go at the corners.

Yes Amuminscotland that is exactly how it is!
I wish I had concentrated more! LoL

He is in year four
He is not allowed to use the number more than once

Yup, I agree with AMumInScotland. I have come up with a solution through trial and error, but by starting with working out what the three corners could be.

If you use AMIS's letters above, then (A+B+D+F)+(A+C+E+I)+(F+G+H+I)=60 (as each group adds to 20). You can get your son to work out what 1-9 adds up to, which is 45, so you can know that the three corners have to add up to 15 as they're the numbers that appear twice in the sum above - so (A+F+I)=15.

Using that, I experimented with a couple of options for combinations that could be A, F and I, before finding one that left the right numbers to fill in the gaps.

ok thanks for your hep I'll give it a go!!!

We've done it....cheers guys!!!! :0