"A marching band formation is set in 7 rows. The first row has three members, and every row after that has two more members than the last. Write an equation showing this then figure out how many members are in the band."

Easy.  2N + 1, where N represents the row you're in. Then you just take the summation and stuff to get a total of 63 members.

BUT THIS CONFUSES ME.

A) A marching band of 63 members. While this is by no means SMALL, it just covers what you need. Say about 2 tenor drums, 5 bass drums, 3 snares, 4 cymbals and you have 14 members in percussion alone, which leaves 49 spots open for the rest of the band. Let's get 9 trumpets (3 for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd part each) bringing us to 40 members. Same split goes for trombones leaving us with 31 spots left. We'll take 8 of each of the major woodwinds(Sax, Clarinet, Flute) (4 for each of the 2 parts to cover) leaving 7 spots left. Oh, I also forgot bells. 2 bells leaving 5 spots for the mellophones, tubas, and baritones. This just barely covers what you need. Plus, does that number include the color guard and honor guard?

B) The formation comes out to be a triangle, which is not satisfying to look at for long periods of time. If a drill calls for a small section in a triangular formation this is fine, but the regular parade formation should always be rectangular.

C) How the heck are you gonna file? Plus turns are gonna get really crappy. Like really fast. What about seeing the drum major?

D) The 7th row of the band has 15 members in it if you do the math. The back row of a marching band is typically percussion. Using my numbers from earlier, we would be putting all 10 drums, 4 cymbals, and one of the two bells in the back row. An average city street is 29 feet according to Google, giving each member just under 2 feet of width. THIS DOES NOT WORK FOR PERCUSSION.

...

I put way too much work into this.

On a band related note, we got a first at the state band festival concert thingy today!

I'm also now dodging accusations from friends saying I punched my boyfriend in the face and gave him a bloody nose on the bus ride to the competition.

Even though I'm the one who put the most effort into helping him clean up and almost sacrificed valuable sheet music for the cause.