The triangular pyramid

Puzzle Question:

One side of the bottom layer of a triangular pyramid has 12 balls. How many are there in the whole pyramid?
Note that the pyramid is equilateral and solid.

Answer --

Solution of Puzzle:

There are total 364 balls.
As there are 12 balls along one side, it means that there are 12 layers of balls. The top most layer has 1 ball. The second layer has 3 (1+2) balls. The third layer has 6 (1+2+3) balls. The fourth layer has 10 (1+2+3+4) balls. The fifth layer has 15 (1+2+3+4+5) balls. Similarly, there are 21, 28, 36, 45, 55, 66 and 78 balls in the remaining layers.
Hence, the total number of balls are
= 1 + 3 + 6 + 10 + 15 + 21 + 28 + 36 + 45 + 55 + 66 + 78
= 364 balls

Toughness:

Intermediate