Looking for an easy way to sum the 1,000,000 layer problem. Has to be one, but I can't seem to get it just now. Writing down the formula for the answer is trivial; why does the dude want the exact number?
Because it's trivial to figure out how to do this iteratively. What requires intelligence is figuring out how to solve it with direct calculation, which is what you must do to calculate the number (without the aid of a computer).