(MAA+1.2-1.3) +ARITHMETIC+SEQUENCES Eco

INTERNATIONAL BACCALAUREATE
Mathematics: analysis and approaches
MAA
EXERCISES [MAA 1.2-1.3]

ARITHMETIC SEQUENCES
Compiled by Christos Nikolaidis
A. Practice questions
SEQUENCES (IN GENERAL)
1. [Maximum mark: 5] [without GDC]

Consider the sequence un : 2, 5, 10, 3, 7, 4, ….
(notice that there is no particular pattern in this sequence)

(a) Write down the values of u1 and S1 . [2]
(b) Write down the values of u2 and S 2 . [2]
(c) Find S5 . [1]

Consider the (simplest) sequence un : 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, ….
(a) Write down the values of u2 and u20 . [2]
(b) Find the value of S5 . [2]
(c) Express the value of un in terms of n . [1]

Consider the sequence un given by un  10n
(a) Find the first three terms . [2]
(b) Find u10 [1]
(c) Find S1 , S 2 and S3 . [3]

Consider the sequence un given by u n  10 n 2
(b) Find u10 . [1]
(c) Find S1 , S 2 and S3 . [3]
Page 1
[MAA 1.2-1.3] ARITHMETIC SEQUENCES
5. [Maximum mark: 6] [with / without GDC]

Consider the sequence un given by un  10 n

(b) Find u10 . [1]
(c) Find S1 , S 2 and S3 . [3]

Consider the sequence un given by the recursive definition
u1  10 , un 1  un  10
(b) Find S1 , S 2 and S3 . [3]

Consider the sequence un given by the recursive definition
u1  10 , un 1  2un  10
(b) Find S1 , S 2 and S3 . [3]

3
(a) Express  (2r ) as a sum of three terms and find the result.
r 1
[2]
3
(b) Express r
r 1
2
as a sum of three terms and find the result. [2]
3
(c) Express 2
r 1
r
as a sum of three terms and find the result. [2]
9. [Maximum mark: 5] [with GDC]

10 20 20
(a) Find A   (2r 2  1) , B   (2r 2  1) , C   (2r 2  1) . [3]
r 1 r 1 r 11
(b) Find a relation between A , B and C . [2]
Page 2
ARITHMETIC SEQUENCES

Consider the arithmetic sequence 11, 15, 19, 23, …
(a) Write down the first term u1 and the common difference d . [1]
(b) Find u101 and S101 [4]
(c) Find the sum of the first 20 terms. [2]

(d) Express the general term un in the form un  an  b . [2]
(e) Hence find the value of n given that un  51 . [2]

In an arithmetic sequence, the first term is –5, while the fifth term is 27.
(a) Find the common difference d . [2]
(b) Find the eleventh term of the sequence. [2]
(c) Find the sum of the first eleven terms. [2]
(d) If the n-th term is 155, find the value of n. [2]

The 5 term of an arithmetic sequence is 30, while the 13th term is 70.
th
(a) Find the first term u1 and the common difference d . [3]
(b) Find the general term u n in terms of n . [1]
(c) Find the sum of the first n terms in terms of n . [1]
(d) Find the 20th term of the sequence and the sum of the first 20 terms. [2]

In an arithmetic sequence, let S1  10 , and S 2  25
(a) Write down u1 and u 2 . [2]
(b) Find the common difference d . [1]
(c) Find S3 and S4 . [2]
(d) Express S n in terms of n . [1]

Calculate the following sums
3 200 200
(a) (i)  (2r  1)
r 1
(ii)  (2r  1)
r 1
(iii)  (2r  1)
r 4
[5]
200
(b)  (2r  1)
r 101
[3]
Page 3
15*. [Maximum mark: 7] [with / without GDC]

(a) Find the number of terms which are less than 100. [3]
(b) Find the last term which is less than 100. [2]
(c) Find the sum of all terms which are less than 100. [2]
B. Exam style questions (SHORT)

The first three terms of an arithmetic sequence are 7, 9.5, 12.
(a) What is the 41st term of the sequence? [2]

(b) What is the sum of the first 101 terms of the sequence? [2]

An arithmetic series has five terms. The first term is 2 and the last term is 32. Find the
sum of the series.

In an arithmetic sequence, u1  2 and u3  8 .
(a) Find d . [2]
(b) Find u20 . [2]
(c) Find S 20 . [2]

In an arithmetic sequence, the first term is 5 and the fourth term is 40. Find the second
term.

Arturo goes swimming every week. He swims 200 metres in the first week. Each week
he swims 30 m more than the previous week. He continues for one year (52 weeks).
(a) How far does Arturo swim in the final week? [3]
(b) How far does he swim altogether? [3]

A theatre has 20 rows of seats. There are 15 seats in the first row, 17 seats in the
second row, and each successive row of seats has two more seats in it than the
previous row.
(a) Calculate the number of seats in the 20th row. [4]
(b) Calculate the total number of seats. [2]
Page 4

Each day a runner trains for a 10 km race. On the first day she runs 1000 m, and then
increases the distance by 250 m on each subsequent day.
(a) On which day does she run a distance of 10 km in training? [2]
(b) What is the total distance she will have run in training by the end of that day? Give
your answer exactly. [2]

A woman deposits $100 into her son’s savings account on his first birthday. On his
second birthday she deposits $125, $150 on his third birthday, and so on.
(a) How much money would she deposit into her son’s account on his 17th birthday? [2]
(b) How much in total would she have deposited after her son’s 17th birthday? [2]

A teacher earns an annual salary of 45 000 USD for the first year of her employment
Her annual salary increases by 1750 USD each year.
(a) Calculate the annual salary for the fifth year of her employment. [3]
She remains in this employment for 10 years.

(b) Calculate the total salary she earns in this employment during these 10 years. [3]

A concert choir is arranged, per row, according to an arithmetic sequence. There are 20
singers in the fourth row and 32 singers in the eighth row.
(a) Find the common difference of this arithmetic sequence. [3]
There are 10 rows in the choir and 11 singers in the first row.
(b) Find the total number of singers in the choir. [3]

A tree begins losing its leaves in October. The number of leaves that the tree loses
each day increases by the same number on each successive day.
Date in October 1 2 3 4 .....................

Number of leaves lost 24 40 56 72 .....................
(a) Calculate the number of leaves that the tree loses on the 21st October. [2]
(b) Find the total number of leaves that the tree loses in the 31 days of the month of
October. [2]
Page 5

In an arithmetic sequence u1  7 , u20  64 and un  3709 .
(a) Find the value of the common difference. [3]

(b) Find the value of n . [2]

The second term of an arithmetic sequence is 7. The sum of the first four terms of the
arithmetic sequence is 12. Find the first term, u1, and the common difference, d.

In an arithmetic sequence the second term is 7 and the sum of the first five terms is 50.
Find the common difference of this arithmetic sequence.

An arithmetic sequence, u1, u2, u3, ..., has d = 11 and u27  263 .
(a) Find u1. [2]

(b) (i) Given that un = 516, find the value of n .
(ii) For this value of n , find Sn. [4]

(a) Find u101 . [3]
(b) Find the value of n so that un  152 . [3]

Consider the arithmetic series 2 + 5 + 8 +....
(a) Find an expression for S n , the sum of the first n terms.
(b) Find the value of n for which S n = 1365.

In an arithmetic sequence, the first term is –2, the fourth term is 16, and the n th term
is 11 998.
(a) Find the common difference d . [3]
(b) Find the value of n . [3]

In an arithmetic sequence u21  37 and u4  3 .
(a) Find (i) the common difference; (ii) the first term. [4]
(b) Find S10 . [3]
Page 6

In an arithmetic series, the first term is –7 and the sum of the first 20 terms is 620.
(a) Find the common difference. [3]
th
(b) Find the value of the 78 term. [2]

(a) Write down the first three terms of the sequence un  3n , for n  1 . [1]
20 100
(b) Find (i)  3n ;
n 1
(ii)  3n .
n  21
[5]
Notice
There are two methods for question b(ii). Practice on both of them.
100
Method 1: By expressing  3n
n  21
as a difference of two sums
100 100 20
 3n   3n   3n
n  21 n 1 n 1
= S100  S 20 (where u1  3 and d  3 )
100
Method 2: By expanding  3n
n  21
100
 3n 
n  21
63  66  69  ⋯  300  S 80 (where u1  63 and d  3 )

Let un  3  2n .
(a) Write down the value of u1 , u2 , and u3 . [3]

20
(b) Find  (3  2 n ) .
n 1
[3]

The n th term of an arithmetic sequence is given by un  5  2n .
(a) Write down the common difference. [1]

(b) (i) Given that the n th term of this sequence is 115, find the value of n .
(ii) For this value of n , find the sum of the sequence. [5]

Consider the arithmetic sequence 3, 9, 15, ..., 1353.
(a) Write down the common difference. [1]
(b) Find the number of terms in the sequence. [3]
(c) Find the sum of the sequence. [2]

In an arithmetic sequence, S 40  1900 and u40  106 . Find the value of u1 and of d .
Page 7

In an arithmetic sequence u1 = 7, u20 = 64 and un = 3709.
(a) Find the value of the common difference. [3]
(b) Find the value of n. [2]

In an arithmetic sequence, the 5th term is 27, the 16th term is 115, while the n -th term
is 155. Find
(a) The value of n . [5]
(b) The sum of the first n terms. [2]

An arithmetic sequence has 5 and 13 as its first two terms respectively.
(a) Write down, in terms of n, an expression for the nth term, un. [2]
(b) Find the number of terms of the sequence which are less than 400. [3]

Let S n be the sum of the first n terms of an arithmetic sequence, whose first three terms
are u1, u2 and u3. It is known that S1 = 7, and S2 = 18.
(a) Write down u1. [1]

(b) Calculate the common difference. [3]
(c) Calculate u4. [2]

Gwendolyn added the multiples of 3, from 3 to 3750 and found that
3 + 6 + 9 + … + 3750 = s.
Calculate s .

An 81 metre rope is cut into n pieces of increasing lengths that form an arithmetic
sequence with a common difference of d metres. Given that the lengths of the shortest
and longest pieces are 1.5m and 7.5m respectively, find the values of n and d

Find the sum of the arithmetic series 17 + 27 + 37 +...+ 417.

51
Calculate the sums (a) 7  10  13  16  ⋯  157 (b)  (3r  4)
r 1
Page 8

Consider the sum of the arithmetic series 5  9  13  17  ⋯  85
(a) Find the general term u n in the form an  b [2]
(b) Hence, express the sum of the series in sigma notation. [4]

Find the sum of the positive terms of the arithmetic sequence 85, 78, 71, ....
51*. [Maximum mark: 6] [without GDC]

Mr Jones decides to increase the amount of money he spends on food by d GBP every
year. In the first year he spends a GBP. In the 8th year he spends twice as much as in
the 4th year. In the 20th year he spends 4000 GBP. Find the value of d.
52*. [Maximum mark: 5] [with GDC]

Consider the arithmetic series  6  1  8  15  ⋯
Find the least number of terms so that the sum of the series is greater than 10 000.
53. [Maximum mark: 5]

The first three terms of an arithmetic sequence are a + 3, 2a + 4 and a + 9.
(a) Find the value of a . [3]
(b) Confirm the result. [2]

The first four terms of an arithmetic sequence are 2 , a  b , 2 a  b  7 and a  3b ,
where a and b are constants. Find a and b.

The ratio of the fifth term to the twelfth term of a sequence in an arithmetic progression
is 6 . If each term of this sequence is positive, and the product of the first term and the
13
third term is 32, find the sum of the first 100 terms of this sequence.

The sum of the first n terms of an arithmetic sequence is S n  3n 2  2 n .
(a) Find u1 and u2. [2]
(b) Express the nth term un in terms of n. [3]

+
The sum of the first n terms of a series is given by S n  2n 2  n , where n  .
(a) Find the first three terms of the series. [3]
th
(b) Find an expression for the n term of the series, giving your answer in terms of n. [3]
Notice:
Mind the difference between the two questions above. The 2nd one does not mention
that the sequence is arithmetic, thus for un you have to use the formula un  S n  S n 1 .
Page 9

The sum of the first n terms of a sequence is given by
S n  4n 2  n , where n  +.
(a) Find S 4 , S 5 and hence u 5 . [3]

(b) Find an expression for u n , the n th term of the sequence. [3]
(c) Show that the sequence is arithmetic by checking the difference u n  u n 1 . [2]
C. Exam style questions (LONG)

Consider the sequence
5, 9, 13, 17, ⋯
Find
(a) the number of terms which are less than 100. [3]
(b) the greatest term which is less than 100. [2]
(c) the sum of the terms which are less than 100. [2]
(d) the greatest value of n such that S n  1000 [3]

Clara organizes cans in triangular piles, where each row has one less can than the row
below. For example, the pile of 15 cans shown has 5 cans in the bottom row and 4 cans
in the row above it.
(a) A pile has 20 cans in the bottom row. Show that the pile contains 210 cans. [4]
(b) There are 3240 cans in a pile. How many cans are in the bottom row? [4]
(c) (i) There are S cans and they are organized in a triangular pile with n cans in
the bottom row. Show that n 2  n  2 S  0 .

(ii) Clara has 2100 cans. Explain why she cannot organize them in a triangular
pile. [6]
Page 10

Consider the arithmetic sequence 1, 4, 7, 10, 13, …
(a) Find the value of the eleventh term. [2]
n
(b) Show that the sum of the first n terms of this sequence is S n  (3n  1) . [2]
2
(c) Hence find the sum of the first 100 terms in this arithmetic sequence. [2]
(d) The sum of the first n terms is 477.
(i) Show that 3n 2  n  954  0 .

(ii) Using your graphic display calculator find the number of terms, n. [4]

The first three terms of an arithmetic sequence are
2k + 3, 5k − 2 and 10k −15.
(a) Show that k = 4. [3]
(b) Find the values of the first three terms of the sequence. [2]
(c) Write down the value of the common difference. [1]
(d) Calculate the 20th term of the sequence. [2]
(e) Find the sum of the first 15 terms of the sequence. [2]

The first three terms of an arithmetic sequence are x 2  3 , x 2 and 4x
(a) When x  3 , the sequence is arithmetic.
(i) Write down the first three terms.
(ii) Find the common difference. [3]
(c) Find the other value of x for which the sequence is arithmetic. [4]
(d) For this value of x (found in question (c))
(i) write down the first three terms.
(ii) find the common difference.
(iii) find the sum of the first 4 terms [5]

Find
(a) the sum of all multiples of 8 between 1 and 900. [3]
(b) the sum of all multiples of 8 between 100 and 900. [3]
(c) the sum of all numbers which are multiples of both 8 and 6, between 1 and 900. [3]
(d) the sum of all numbers which are multiples of 8 but not of 6, between 1 and 900. [3]
(e) the sum of all numbers which are multiples of 8 or of 6, between 1 and 900. [3]
Page 11

Consider the positive integers grouped in the following way:
[1], [2,3,4,5], [6,7,8,9,10,11,12], [13,14,…,22], ...
i.e. the groups contain 1, 4, 7, 10, … consecutive integers respectively.

(each subsequent group contains 3 more integers)
(a) Find
(i) the number of elements in the 20th group.
(ii) the last term of the 20th group. [5]
(b) Find in terms of n
(i) the number of elements in the nth group.
(ii) the last term of the nth group. [5]
(c) Hence find the first term of the 20th group. [2]
(d) Show that the sum of the terms in the 20th group is 32567. [3]
Page 12

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INTERNATIONAL BACCALAUREATE

Mathematics: analysis and approaches

EXERCISES [MAA 1.2-1.3]

SEQUENCES (IN GENERAL)

1. [Maximum mark: 5] [without GDC]

(notice that there is no particular pattern in this sequence)

2. [Maximum mark: 5] [without GDC]

3. [Maximum mark: 6] [without GDC]

4. [Maximum mark: 6] [without GDC]

5. [Maximum mark: 6] [with / without GDC]

(a) Find the first three terms . [2]

6. [Maximum mark: 6] [with / without GDC]

7. [Maximum mark: 6] [with / without GDC]

8. [Maximum mark: 6] [with / without GDC]

9. [Maximum mark: 5] [with GDC]

(b) Find a relation between A , B and C . [2]

10. [Maximum mark: 6] [with / without GDC]

(b) Find u101 and S101 [4]

(c) Find the sum of the first 20 terms. [2]

(e) Hence find the value of n given that un  51 . [2]

11. [Maximum mark: 8] [without GDC]

12. [Maximum mark: 7] [with / without GDC]

13. [Maximum mark: 6] [without GDC]

(d) Express S n in terms of n . [1]

14. [Maximum mark: 8] [with / without GDC]

15*. [Maximum mark: 7] [with / without GDC]

B. Exam style questions (SHORT)

16. [Maximum mark: 4] [with / without GDC]

(a) What is the 41st term of the sequence? [2]

17. [Maximum mark: 4] [without GDC]

18. [Maximum mark: 6] [without GDC]

19. [Maximum mark: 4] [without GDC]

20. [Maximum mark: 6] [with GDC]

21. [Maximum mark: 6] [with GDC]

22. [Maximum mark: 4] [with GDC]

23. [Maximum mark: 4] [with GDC]

24. [Maximum mark: 6] [with GDC]

She remains in this employment for 10 years.

25. [Maximum mark: 6] [with GDC]

26. [Maximum mark: 4] [with GDC]

Date in October 1 2 3 4 .....................

27. [Maximum mark: 5] [with GDC]

(a) Find the value of the common difference. [3]

28. [Maximum mark: 4] [without GDC]

29. [Maximum mark: 4] [without GDC]

30. [Maximum mark: 6] [with GDC]

(a) Find u1. [2]

31. [Maximum mark: 6] [with / without GDC]

(b) Find the value of n so that un  152 . [3]

32. [Maximum mark: 6] [with GDC]

(b) Find the value of n for which S n = 1365.

33. [Maximum mark: 6] [without GDC]

34. [Maximum mark: 7] [with / without GDC]

35. [Maximum mark: 5] [with GDC]

36. [Maximum mark: 6] [without GDC]

37. [Maximum mark: 6] [without GDC]

(a) Write down the value of u1 , u2 , and u3 . [3]

38. [Maximum mark: 6] [with / without GDC]