REVIEW OF ARITHMETIC SEQUENCES

The formula for the n th term a

n
of an arithmetic sequence with a common
difference d and a first term a
1
is given by
a
n
= a
1
+ (n - 1 )d


The sum s
n
of the first n terms of an arithmetic sequence is defined by


s
n
= a
1
+ a
2
+ a
3
+ ... + a
n



and is a
1
is given by


s
n
= n (a
1
+ a
n
) / 2
Problem 1:
The first term of an arithmetic sequence is equal to 6 and the common
difference is equal to 3. Find a formula for the n th term and the value of the
50 th term
Solution to Problem 1:
Use the value of the common difference d = 3 and the first term a
1
= 6 in
the formula for the n th term given above

a
n
= a
1
+ (n - 1 )d

= 6 + 3 (n - 1)

= 3 n + 3
The 50 th term is found by setting n = 50 in the above formula.
a
50
= 3 (50) + 3 = 153

Problem 2:
The first term of an arithmetic sequence is equal to 200 and the common
difference is equal to
-10. Find the value of the 20 th term
Solution to Problem 2:
Use the value of the common difference d = -10 and the first term a
1
=
200 in the formula for the n th term given above and then apply it to the
20 th term

a
20
= 200 + (-10) (20 - 1 ) = 10

Problem 3:
An arithmetic sequence has a common difference equal to 10 and its 6 th term
is equal to 52. Find its 15 th term.
Solution to Problem 3:
We use the n th term formula for the 6 th term, which is known, to write

a
6
= 52 = a
1
+ 10 (6 - 1 )
The above equation allows us to calculate a
1
.

a
1
= 2
Now that we know the first term and the common difference, we use the
n th term formula to find the 15 th term as follows.

a
15
= 2 + 10 (15 - 1) = 142

Problem 4:
An arithmetic sequence has a its 5 th term equal to 22 and its 15 th term equal
to 62. Find its 100 th term.
Solution to Problem 4:
We use the n th term formula for the 5 th and 15 th terms to write

a
5
= a
1
+ (5 - 1 ) d = 22

a
15
= a
1
+ (15 - 1 ) d = 62
We obtain a system of 2 linear equations where the unknown are a
1
and
d. Subtract the right and left term of the two equations to obtain

62 - 22 = 14 d - 4 d
Solve for d.

d = 4
Now use the value of d in one of the equations to find a
1
.

a
1
+ (5 - 1 ) 4 = 22
Solve for a
1
to obtain.

a
1
= 6
Now that we have calculated a
1
and d we use them in the n th term
formula to find the 100 th formula.

a
100
= 6 + 4 (100 - 1 )= 402

Problem 5:
Find the sum of all the integers from 1 to 1000.
Solution to Problem 5:
The sequence of integers starting from 1 to 1000 is given by

1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , ... , 1000
The above sequence has 1000 terms. The first term is 1 and the last
term is 1000 and the common difference is equal to 1. We have the
formula that gives the sum of the first n terms of an arithmetic sequence
knowing the first and last term of the sequence and the number of terms
(see formula above).

s
1000
= 1000 (1 + 1000) / 2 = 500500

Problem 6:
Find the sum of the first 50 even positive integers.
Solution to Problem 6:
The sequence of the first 50 even positive integers is given by

2 , 4 , 6 , ...
The above sequence has a first term equal to 2 and a common
difference d = 2. We use the n th term formula to find the 50 th term

a
50
= 2 + 2 (50 - 1) = 100
We now the first term and last term and the number of terms in the
sequence, we now find the sum of the first 50 terms

s
50
= 50 (2 + 100) / 2 = 2550

Problem 7:
Find the sum of all positive integers, from 5 to 1555 inclusive, that are divisible
by 5.
Solution to Problem 7:
The first few terms of a sequence of positive integers divisible by 5 is
given by

5 , 10 , 15 , ...
The above sequence has a first term equal to 5 and a common
difference d = 5. We need to know the rank of the term 1555. We use
the formula for the n th term as follows

1555 = a
1
+ (n - 1 )d
Substitute a
1
and d by their values

1555 = 5 + 5(n - 1 )
Solve for n to obtain

n = 311
We now know that 1555 is the 311 th term, we can use the formula for
the sum as follows

s
311
= 311 (5 + 1555) / 2 = 242580

Problem 8:
Find the sum S defined by
10
S = (2n + 1 / 2)
n=1
Solution to Problem 8:
Let us first decompose this sum as follows
10
S = (2n + 1 / 2)
n=1
10 10
= 2 n + (1 / 2)
i=1 n=1

The term n is the sum of the first 10 positive integers. The 10 first
positive integers make an arirhmetic sequence with first term equal to 1,
it has n = 10 terms and its 10 th term is equal to 10. This sum is
obtained using the formula s
n
= n (a
1
+ a
n
) / 2 as follows

10(1+10)/2 = 55
The term (1 / 2) is the addition of a constant term 10 times and is
given by

10(1/2) = 5
The sum S is given by

S = 2(55) + 5 = 115

Exercises:
Answer the following questions related to arithmetic sequences:

a) Find a
20
given that a
3
= 9 and a
8
= 24

b) Find a
30
given that the first few terms of an arithmetic sequence are given
by 6,12,18,...

c) Find d given that a
1
= 10 and a
20
= 466

d) Find s
30
given that a
10
= 28 and a
20
= 58

e) Find the sum S defined by
20
S = (3n - 1 / 2)
n=1


f) Find the sum S defined by
20 40
S = 0.2 n + 0.4 j
n=1 j=21
Solutions to Above Exercises:

a) a
20
= 60

b) a
30
= 180

c) d = 24

d) s
30
= 1335

e) 1380

f) 286



REVIEW OF GEOMETRIC SEQUENCES

The sequence shown below
2 , 8 , 32 , 128 , ...


has been obtained starting from 2 and multiplying each term by 4. 2 is the first
term of the sequence and 4 is the common ratio.

8 = 2 * 4 or 8 / 2 = 4

32 = 8 * 4 or 32 / 8 = 4

128 = 32 * 4 or 128 / 32 = 4 and so on.

The terms in the sequence may also be written as follows

a
1
= 2

a
2
= a
1
* 4 = 2 * 4

a
3
= a
2
* 4 = 2 * 4
2


a
4
= a
3
* 4 = 2 * 4
3


The n th term may now be written as


a
n
= a
1
* r
n-1



where a
1
is the first term of the sequence and r is the common ratio which is
equal to 4 in the above example.

The sum of the first n terms of a geometric sequence is given by


s
n
= a
1
+ a
2
+ a
3
+ ... a
n
= a
1
(1 - r
n
) / (1 - r)


The sum S of an infinite (n approaches infinity) geometric sequence and when
|r| <1 is given by


S = a
1
/ (1 - r)

Problem 1:
Find the terms a
2
, a
3
, a
4
and a
5
of a geometric sequence if a
1
= 10 and the
common ratio r = - 1.
Solution to Problem 1:
Use the definition of a geometric sequence

a
2
= a
1
* r = 10 * (-1) = - 10

a
3
= a
2
* r = - 10 * (-1) = 10

a
4
= a
3
* r = 10 * (-1) = - 10

a
5
= a
4
* r = - 10 * (-1) = 10

Problem 2:
Find the 10 th term of a geometric sequence if a
1
= 45 and the common ration
r = 0.2.
Solution to Problem 2:
Use the formula a
n
= a
1
* r
n-1
that gives the n th term to find a
10
as
follows

a
10
= a
1
* r
n-1


= 45 * 0.2
9
= 2.304 * 10
-5


Problem 3:
Find a
20
of a geometric sequence if the first few terms of the sequence are
given by
-1/2 , 1/4 , -1/8 , 1 / 16 , ...
Solution to Problem 3:
We first use the first few terms to find the common ratio

r = a
2
/ a
1
= (1/4) / (-1/2) = -1/2

r = a
3
/ a
2
= (-1/8) / (1/4) = -1/2

r = a
4
/ a
3
= (1/16) / (-1/8) = -1/2
The common ration r = -1/2. We now use the formula a
n
= a
1
* r
n-1
for
the n th term to find a
20
as follows.

a
20
= a
1
* r
20-1


= (-1/2) * (-1/2)
20-1
= 1 / (20
20
)

Problem 4:

Given the terms a
10
= 3 / 512 and a
15
= 3 / 16384 of a geometric sequence,
find the exact value of the term a
30
of the sequence.
Solution to Problem 4:
We first use the formula for the n th term to write a
10
and a
15
as follows

a
10
= a
1
* r
10-1
= 3 / 512

a
15
= a
1
* r
15-1
= 3 / 16384
We now divide the terms a
10
and a
15
to write

a
15
/ a
10
= (a
1
* r
14
/ a
1
* r
9
) = (3 / 16384) / (3 / 512)
Solve for r to obtain.

r
5
= 1 / 32 which gives r = 1/2
We now use a
10
to find a
1
as follows.

a
10
= 3 / 512 = a
1
(1/2)
9

Solve for a
1
to obtain.

a
1
= 3
We now use the formula for the n th term to find a
30
as follows.

a
30
= 3(1/2)
29
= 3 / 536870912

Problem 5:
Find the sum
6
S = 3
k-1

k=1
Solution to Problem 5:
We first rewrite the sum S as follows

S = 1 + 3 + 9 + 27 + 81 + 243 = 364
Another method is to first note that the terms making the sum are those
of an arithmetic sequence with a
1
= 1 and r = 3 using the formula s
n
=
a
1
(1 - r
n
) / (1 - r) with n = 6.

s
6
= 1 (1 - 3
6
) / (1 - 3) = 364

Problem 6:
Find the sum
10
S = 8*(1/4)
i-1

i=1
Solution to Problem 6:
An examination of the terms included in the sum are

8 , 8*((1/4)
1
, 8*((1/4)
2
, ... , 8*((1/4)
9

These are the terms of a geometric sequence with a
1
= 8 and r = 1/4
and therefore we can use the formula for the sum of the terms of a
geometric sequence

s
10
= a
1
(1 - r
n
) / (1 - r)

= 8 * (1 - (1/4)
10
) / (1 - 1/4) = 10.67 (rounded to 2 decimal places)

Problem 7:
Write the rational number 5.31313131... as the ratio of two integers.
Solution to Problem 7:
We first write the given rational number as an infinite sum as follows

5.313131... = 5 + 0.31 + 0.0031 + 0.000031 + ....
The terms making 0.31 + 0.0031 + 0.000031 ... are those of a geometric
sequence with a
1
= 0.31 and r = 0.01. Hence the use of the formula for
an infinite sum of a geometric sequence

S = a
1
/ (1 - r) = 0.31 / (1 - 0.01) = 0.31 / 0.99 = 31 / 99
We now write 5.313131... as follows

5.313131... = 5 + 31/99 = 526 / 99


Exercises:
Answer the following questions related to geometric sequences:

a) Find a
20
given that a
3
= 1/2 and a
5
= 8

b) Find a
30
given that the first few terms of a geometric sequence are given by
-2 , 1 , -1/2 , 1/4 ...

c) Find r given that a
1
= 10 and a
20
= 10
-18


d) write the rational number 0.9717171... as a ratio of two positive integers.

Solutions to Above Exercises:

a) a
20
= 2
18


b) a
30
= 1 / 2
28


c) r = 0.1

d) 0.9717171... = 481/495