<s>[INST] Proof that $1+2+3+4+\cdots+n = \frac{n\times(n+1)}2$ Why is $1+2+3+4+\ldots+n = \dfrac{n\times(n+1)}2$ $\space$ ?
 [/INST] Here are two ways to calculate this sum. First is by symmetry of another sum:
$\begin{aligned} \displaystyle &  \sum_{0 \le k \le n}k^2  = \sum_{0 \le k \le n}(n-k)^2  = n^2\sum_{0 \le k \le n}-2n\sum_{0 \le k \le n}k+\sum_{0 \le k \le n}k^2 \\& \implies 2n\sum_{0 \le k \le n}k = n^2(n+1) \implies \sum_{0 \le k \le n}k = \frac{1}{2}n(n+1).\end{aligned}$
The second is writing it as double sum and switching the order of summation:
$\begin{aligned}\displaystyle & \begin{aligned}\sum_{1 \le k \le n}k & = \sum_{1 \le k \le n}~\sum_{1 \le r \le k} = \sum_{1 \le r \le n} ~\sum_{r \le k \le n} = \sum_{1 \le r \le n}\bigg(\sum_{1 \le k \le n}-\sum_{1 \le k \le r-1}\bigg) \\& =\sum_{1 \le r \le n}\bigg(n-r+1\bigg) = n\sum_{1 \le k \le n}-\sum_{1 \le k \le n}k+\sum_{1 \le k \le n}\end{aligned} \\& \implies 2\sum_{1 \le k \le n}k = n^2+n \implies \sum_{1 \le k \le n}k = \frac{1}{2}n(n+1), ~ \mathbb{Q. E. D.} \end{aligned}$
Note I started using k back on the third line for convenience because r is just a dummy vairable at this point, and our sum no longer depends on k. Note that the first trick can easily be generalised: 
$\begin{aligned} & \hspace{0.5in}\begin{aligned}\displaystyle  \sum_{0 \le k \le n}k^{2p}  &= \sum_{0 \le k \le n}(n-k)^{2p} \\& = \sum_{0 \le k \le n}~\sum_{0 \le r \le 2p}\binom{2p}{r}n^r(-1)^{2p-r}k^{2p-r}\\& = \sum_{0 \le k \le n}k^{2p}-2pn\sum_{0 \le k \le n}k^{2p-1}+\sum_{0 \le k \le n}~\sum_{2 \le r \le 2p}\binom{2p}{r}n^r(-1)^{2p-r}k^{2p-r}  \end{aligned} \\& \implies \sum_{0 \le k \le n}k^{2p-1} =  \frac{1}{2pn}\sum_{0 \le k \le n}~\sum_{2 \le r \le 2p}\binom{2p}{r}n^r(-1)^{2p-r}k^{2p-r}. \end{aligned}$
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