Centered triangular number
Appearance
A centered triangular number is a figurate number that represents a triangle with a dot in the center and all other dots surrounding the center. The centered triangular number for n is given by the formula
The first few centered triangular numbers are
1, 4, 10, 19, 31, 46, 64, 85, 109, 136, 166, 199, 235, 274, 316, 361, 409, 460, 514, 571, 631, 694, 760, 829, 901, 976, 1054, 1135, 1219, 1306, 1396, 1489, 1585, 1684, 1786, 1891, 1999, 2110, 2224, 2341, 2461, 2584, 2710, 2839, 2971
Each centered triangular number from 10 onwards is the sum of three consecutive regular triangular numbers.
Adding up the first n centered triangular numbers gives the magic constant for an n by n magic square (so long as n > 2).