Row sums conjecture in iterated Rascal triangles

A Rascal triangle is a Pascal-type numeric triangle developed in 2010 by three middle-school students, Alif Anggoro, Eddy Liu and Angus Tulloch [1]. During their mathematics classes they were challenged to provide the next row for the following sequence:The expected answer was the one that matches Pascal’s triangle, i.e. 1 4 6 4 1, obtained by applying the recurrence rule of binomial coefficients South = East + West. Instead, the young students suggested that the next row should be 1 4 5 4 1. In contrast to Pascal’s triangle rule South = East + West, they produced the new row using the relation they called the diamond formulaBy applying the diamond formula (1), the students produced an original triangular sequence known as the Rascal triangle, see Table 1.

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Publication Details

Journal
The Mathematical Gazette
Published
2025-10-15
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1017/mag.2025.10129
Primary Topic
Mathematics and Applications
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
0.00
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article

Row sums conjecture in iterated Rascal triangles

Petro Kolosov
The Mathematical Gazette
Mathematics and Applications
article

Row sums conjecture in iterated Rascal triangles

Petro Kolosov
article en

Abstract

A Rascal triangle is a Pascal-type numeric triangle developed in 2010 by three middle-school students, Alif Anggoro, Eddy Liu and Angus Tulloch [1]. During their mathematics classes they were challenged to provide the next row for the following sequence:The expected answer was the one that matches Pascal’s triangle, i.e. 1 4 6 4 1, obtained by applying the recurrence rule of binomial coefficients South = East + West. Instead, the young students suggested that the next row should be 1 4 5 4 1. In contrast to Pascal’s triangle rule South = East + West, they produced the new row using the relation they called the diamond formulaBy applying the diamond formula (1), the students produced an original triangular sequence known as the Rascal triangle, see Table 1.

The Mathematical GazetteVol. 109(576)
Institute of Plant Protection (PL)
Openalex Percentile: Top 65%
Mathematics and Applications
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