Calculate the 30th term of the sequence 4, 2.6, 1.2, 0.2, .....

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 a1 = 6 in the
formula for the n th term given above
an = a1 + (n - 1 )d
= 6 + 3 (n - 1)
=3n+3

The 50 th term is found by setting n = 50 in the above formula.

a50 = 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
a20 = 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
a6 = 52 = a1 + 10 (6 - 1 )

The above equation allows us to calculate a1.

a1 = 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.

a15 = 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

a5 = a1 + (5 - 1 ) d = 22
a15 = a1 + (15 - 1 ) d = 62

We obtain a system of 2 linear equations where the unknown are a1 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 a1.

a1 + (5 - 1 ) 4 = 22

Solve for a1 to obtain.

a1 = 6

Now that we have calculated a1 and d we use them in the n th term formula to find
the 100 th formula.
a100 = 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).

s1000 = 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
a50 = 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
s50 = 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 = a1 + (n - 1 )d

Substitute a1 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
s311 = 311 (5 + 1555) / 2 = 242580

Exercises:
Answer the following questions related to arithmetic sequences:
a) Find a20 given that a3 = 9 and a8 = 24
b) Find a30 given that the first few terms of an arithmetic sequence are given by 6,12,18,...
c) Find d given that a1 = 10 and a20 = 466
d) Find s30 given that a10 = 28 and a20 = 58
Solutions to Above Exercises:
a) a20 = 60
b) a30 = 180
c) d = 24
d) s30 = 1335

The first term of an arithmetic sequence is 4 and the tenth

term is 67.
What is the common difference?
What is the thirty-second term of the arithmetic sequence
-12, -7, -2, 3, ... ?
What is the twentieth term of the arithmetic sequence 21, 18,
15, 12, ... ?
What is the sum of the first sixteen terms of the arithmetic
sequence
1, 5, 9, 13, ... ?
What is the sum of the first thirty terms of the arithmetic
sequence
50, 45, 40, 35, ... ?
What is the sum of the eleventh to twentieth terms
(inclusive)of the arithmetic sequence
7, 12, 17, 22, ... ?
The fifth term of an arithmetic sequence is 11 and the tenth
term is 41. What is the first term?

The eleventh term of an arithmetic sequence is 30 and the

sum of the first eleven terms is 55. What is the common
difference?
How many terms of the arithmetic sequence
2, 8, 14, 20, ...
are required to give a sum of 660?