A7 Summit

[Bob Kneale]

Whilst currently taking cover in Cornwall from the current G7 summit further down county, i started musing about the 2022 A7 summit at Moreton-in Marsh next year. With electric cars prospect looming, I remembered an image in the Wonder Book Of Motors  (attached) and pondered:-
If the 1000 or so entrants were pile up in a pyramid, how high would the summit be?The base would be a square of course.
The number of layers would be relatively low for 1000 cars but i can't work out the necessary algorithm. Can anybody? No prizes.
I live in hope that the image can be enhanced by one of our graphic artists..............
I just hope no one suggests we perform this stunt at the FIRE COLLEGE
I bet the security won't be as tight as in St Ives/Carbis Bay1 ( but I thing there will be lots of steel security fencing going begging before 2022
   

[Colin Morgan]

Well, if you think of the cars like sugar cubes, and there is 1 on the top of the pyramid, 2 x 2 = 4 on the next, 3 x 3 on the third layer, then the calculation for 1000 cars is "the sum of the squares from 1 to the number of layers = 1000."

As the sum of squares from 1 to 14 is 1015, the pyramid would need to contain 1015 cars to be 14 layers high.

If most of the cars on the Chassis Register were to turn up - say 9455 - then the pyramid could be 30 layers high.

But this really is a theoretical exercise - isn't it?

[Duncan Grimmond]

Aww, spoilsport! I want to see the real thing!