Worksheet 3.

6 Arithmetic and Geometric Progressions

Section 1 Arithmetic Progression

An arithmetic progression is a list of numbers where the dierence between successive numbers is constant. The terms in an arithmetic progression are usually denoted as u1 , u2 , u3 etc. where u1 is the initial term in the progression, u2 is the second term, and so on; un is the nth term. An example of an arithmetic progression is 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, . . . Since the dierence between successive terms is constant, we have u3 u 2 = u 2 u 1 and in general un+1 un = u2 u1 We will denote the dierence u2 u1 as d, which is a common notation. Example 1 : Given that 3,7 and 11 are the rst three terms in an arithmetic progression, what is d? 7 3 = 11 7 = 4 Then d = 4. That is, the common dierence between the terms is 4. If we know the rst term in an arithmetic progression , and the dierence between terms, then we can work out the nth term, i.e. we can work out what any term will be. The formula which tells us what the nth term in an arithmetic progression is un = a + (n 1) d where a is the rst term. Example 2 : If the rst 3 terms in an arithmetic progression are 3,7,11 then what is the 10th term? The rst term is a = 3, and the common dierence is d = 4. un = a + (n 1)d u10 = 3 + (10 1)4 = 3+94 = 39 1

Example 3 : If the rst 3 terms in an arithmetic progression are 8,5,2 then what is the 16th term? In this progression a = 8 and d = 3. un = a + (n 1)d u16 = 8 + (10 1) (3) = 37 Example 4 : Given that 2x, 5 and 6 x are the rst three terms in an arithmetic progression , what is d? 5 2x = (6 x) 5 x = 4 Since x = 4, the terms are 8, 5, 2 and the dierence is 3. The next term in the arithmetic progression will be 1. An arithmetic series is an arithmetic progression with plus signs between the terms instead of commas. We can nd the sum of the rst n terms, which we will denote by Sn , using another formula: n Sn = [2a + (n 1)d] 2 Example 5 : If the rst 3 terms in an arithmetic progression are 3,7,11 then what is the sum of the rst 10 terms? Note that a = 3, d = 4 and n = 10. S10 = 10 (2 3 + (10 1) 4) 2 = 5(6 + 36) = 210

Alternatively, but more tediously, we add the rst 10 terms together: S10 = 3 + 7 + 11 + 15 + 19 + 23 + 27 + 31 + 35 + 39 = 210 This method would have drawbacks if we had to add 100 terms together! Example 6 : If the rst 3 terms in an arithmetic progression are 8,5,2 then what is the sum of the rst 16 terms? 16 S16 = (2 8 + (16 1) (3)) 2 = 8(16 45) = 232 2

Exercises: 1. For each of the following arithmetic progressions, nd the values of a, d, and the un indicated. (a) 1, 4, 7, . . ., (u10 ) (b) 8, 6, 4, . . ., (u12 ) (c) 8, 4, 0, . . ., (u20 ) (d) 20, 15, 10, . . ., (u6 ) (e) 40, 30, 20, . . ., (u18 ) (f) 6, 8, 10, . . ., (u12 ) (g) 2, 2 1 , 3, . . ., (u19 ) 2 (h) 6, 5 3 , 51 , . . ., (u10 ) 4 2
1 , 6, . . ., (u14 ) (i) 7, 6 2

(j) 0, 5, 10, . . ., (u15 )

2. For each of the following arithmetic progressions, nd the values of a, d, and the Sn indicated. (a) 1, 3, 5, . . ., (S8 ) (b) 2, 5, 8, . . ., (S10 ) (c) 10, 7, 4, . . ., (S20 )
1 (d) 6, 6 2 , 7, . . ., (S8 )

(f) 2, 0, 2, . . ., (S5 ) (g) 20, 16, 12, . . ., (S4 ) (h) 40, 35, 30, . . ., (S11 ) (i) 12, 10 1 , 9, . . ., (S9 ) 2 (j) 8, 5, 2, . . ., (S20 )

(e) 8, 7, 6, . . ., (S14 )

Section 2 Geometric Progressions

A geometric progression is a list of terms as in an arithmetic progression but in this case the ratio of successive terms is a constant. In other words, each term is a constant times the term that immediately precedes it. Lets write the terms in a geometric progression as u1 , u2 , u3 , u4 and so on. An example of a geometric progression is 10, 100, 1000, 10000, . . . Since the ratio of successive terms is constant, we have u3 u2 = u2 u1 u2 un+1 = un u1 and

The ratio of successive terms is usually denoted by r and the rst term again is usually written a. 3

Example 1 : Find r for the geometric progression whose rst three terms are 2, 4, 8. 8 4 = =2 2 4 Then r = 2. Example 2 : Find r for the geometric progression whose rst three terms are 5, 1 , 2 1 and 20 . 1 1 1 1 5= = 2 20 2 10 1 Then r = 10 . If we know the rst term in a geometric progression and the ratio between successive terms, then we can work out the value of any term in the geometric progression . The nth term is given by

un = ar n1

Again, a is the rst term and r is the ratio. Remember that ar n1 = (ar )n1 . Example 3 : Given the rst two terms in a geometric progression as 2 and 4, what is the 10th term? 4 a=2 r= =2 2 9 Then u10 = 2 2 = 1024. Example 4 : Given the rst two terms in a geometric progression as 5 and 1 , what 2 is the 7th term? 1 a=5 r= 10 Then u7 = 5 ( = 1 71 ) 10

5 1000000 = 0.000005

A geometric series is a geometric progression with plus signs between the terms instead of commas. So an example of a geometric series is 1+ 1 1 1 + + + 10 100 1000

We can take the sum of the rst n terms of a geometric series and this is denoted by Sn : a(1 r n ) 1r

Sn =

Example 5 : Given the rst two terms of a geometric progression as 2 and 4, what is the sum of the rst 10 terms? We know that a = 2 and r = 2. Then S10 = 2(1 210 ) 12 = 2046

, what Example 6 : Given the rst two terms of a geometric progression as 5 and 1 2 1 is the sum of the rst 7 terms? We know that a = 5 and r = 10 . Then S7
1 5(1 10 ) = 1 1 10 1 17 = 5 9 10 10 7

= 5.555555 In certain cases, the sum of the terms in a geometric progression has a limit (note that this is summing together an innite number of terms). A series like this has a limit partly because each successive term we are adding is smaller and smaller (but this fact in itself is not enough to say that the limiting sum exists). When the sum of a geometric series has a limit we say that S exists and we can nd the limit of the sum. For more information on limits, see worksheet 3.7. The condition that S exists is that r is greater than 1 but less than 1, i.e. |r | < 1. If this is the case, then we can use the formula for Sn above and let n grow arbitrarily big so that r n becomes as close as we like to zero. Then S =
a 1r

is the limit of the geometric progression so long as 1 < r < 1. 5

Example 7 : The geometric progression whose rst two terms are 2 and 4 does not have a S because r = 2 < 1. Example 8 : For the geometric progression whose rst two terms are 5 and 1 , nd 2 1 S . Note that r = 10 so |r | < 1, so that S exists. Now S = a 1r 5 = 1 1 10 5 = 5 9

1 + So the sum of 5 + 2

1 20

1 200

+ . . . is 5 5 9

Example 9 : Consider a geometric progression whose rst three terms are 12, 6 . Find both S8 and S . and 3. Notice that r = 1 2 S = S8 = a(1 r n ) 1r 1 8 12(1 ( 2 ) ) = 1 1 ( 2 ) 7.967 a 1r 12 = 1 1 ( 2 ) 12 = 3/2 = 8

Exercises: 1. Find the term indicated for each of the geometric progressions. (a) 1, 3, 9, . . ., (u9 ) (b) 4, 8, 16, . . ., (u10 ) (c) 18, 6, 2, . . ., (u12 ) (d) 1000, 100, 10, . . ., (u7 ) (e) 32, 8, 2, . . ., (u14 ) (f) 0.005, 0.05, 0.5, . . ., (u10 ) (g) 6, 12, 24, . . ., (u6 ) (h) 1.4, 0.7, 0.35, . . ., (u5 ) (i) 68, 34, 17, . . ., (u9 ) (j) 8, 2, 1 , . . ., (u11 ) 2

2. Find the sum indicated for each of the following geometric series (a) 6 + 9 + 13.5 + (S10 ) (b) 18 9 + 4.5 + (S12 ) (c) 6 + 3 +
3 2

+ (S10 )

(d) 6000 + 600 + 60 + (S20 ) (e) 80 20 + 5 + (S9 )

Exercises 3.6 Arithmetic and Geometric Progressions

1. For each of the following progressions, determine whether it is arithmetic, geometric, or neither: (a) 5, 9, 13, 17, . . . (b) 1, 2, 4, 8, . . . (c) 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, . . . (d) 81, 9, 3, 1 , ... 3 (e) 512, 474, 436, 398, . . . 2. Find the sixth and twentieth terms, and the sum of the rst 10 terms of each of the following sequences: (a) 15, 9, 3, . . . (b) log 7, log 14, log 28, . . . (c)
1 1 1 , , , 16 8 4

...

(d) 0.5, 0.45, 0.405, . . . (e) 64,32,16, . . . 3. (a) The third and eighth terms of an AP are 470 and 380 respectively. Find the rst term and the common dierence. Hint: write expressions for u3 and u8 and solve simultaneously. (b) Find the sum to 5 terms of the geometric progression whose rst term is 54 and fourth term is 2. (c) Find the second term of a geometric progression whose third term is 16 term is 81 .
9 4

and sixth

(d) Find the sum to n terms of an arithmetic progression whose fourth and fth terms are 13 and 15. 4. (a) A university lecturer has an annual salary of $40,000. If this increases by 2% each year, how much will she have grossed in total after 10 years? (b) A bob of a pendulum swings through an arc of 50 cm on its rst swing. Each successive swing is 90% of the length of the previous swing. Find the total distance the bob travels before coming to rest.

Answers 3.6

1. (a) Arithmetic

(b) Geometric

(c) Neither

(d) Neither

(e) Arithmetic

2. (a) T6 = 15, T20 = 99, S10 = 120 (b) T6 = log 7 + 5 log 2, T20 = log 7 + 19 log 2, S10 = (c) T6 = 2, T20 = 2 , S10 =
5 15 1 (210 16 10 (2 log 7 2

+ 9 log 2)

1) + 210 )
9 3 (c) T2 = ( 4 )

(d) T6 = (0.5)(0.9) , T20 = (0.5)(0.9)19 , S10 = 5(1 .910 ) (e) T6 = 2, T20 = 21 13 , S10 = 3. (a) a = 506, d = 18 4. (a) $437,988.84
128 (1 3

1 5 )) (b) 81(1 ( 3

(d) n2 + 6n

(b) 5 metres