Hi Juriemagic,
\(\displaystyle \sum _{k=1}^m\;\;2^{8-k}=255.5\)
First I did a little spreadsheet to see if it worked
You can see that the answer is 9.
Now I will try it without the help of Excel.
The sequence is 128, 64, 32, 16 ,....
This is a GP with r=-0.5 and a=128
\(S_n=\frac{a(1-r^n)}{1-r}\\ S_n=\frac{128(1-(0.5)^n)}{0.5}=255.5\\~\\ 256(1-(0.5)^n)=255.5\\~\\ 1-(0.5)^n=\frac{255.5}{256}\\~\\ 1-\frac{255.5}{256}=(0.5)^n\\~\\ \frac{0.5}{256}=\frac{1}{2^n}\\~\\ \frac{1}{512}=\frac{1}{2^n}\\~\\ 2^n=512\\~\\ n=9 \)
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