Difference of Squares

Instructions

Find the difference between the square of the sum and the sum of the squares of the first N natural numbers.

The square of the sum of the first ten natural numbers is (1 + 2 + ... + 10)² = 55² = 3025.

The sum of the squares of the first ten natural numbers is 1² + 2² + ... + 10² = 385.

Hence the difference between the square of the sum of the first ten natural numbers and the sum of the squares of the first ten natural numbers is 3025 - 385 = 2640.

You are not expected to discover an efficient solution to this yourself from first principles; research is allowed, indeed, encouraged. Finding the best algorithm for the problem is a key skill in software engineering.

Running and testing your solutions

From the command line

Simply type make chez if you're using ChezScheme or make guile if you're using GNU Guile. Sometimes the name for the scheme binary on your system will differ from the defaults. When this is the case, you'll need to tell make by running make chez chez=your-chez-binary or make guile guile=your-guile-binary.

From a REPL

• Enter (load "test.scm") at the repl prompt.
• Develop your solution in difference-of-squares.scm reloading as you go.
• Run (test) to check your solution.

Failed Test Cases

If some of the test cases fail, you should see the failing input and the expected output. The failing input is presented as a list because the tests call your solution by (apply difference-of-squares input-list). To learn more about apply see The Scheme Programming Language -- Chapter 5

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Source

Problem 6 at Project Euler