11.

7 Series and Sequence as Math Models

Mathematician:

1) A pile of bricks has 85 bricks in the bottom row, 79 bricks in the second row, 73 in the third row and so on until there is only 1 brick in the top row.

a)

How many bricks are in the 12th row?

b)

How many rows in all?

c)

How many bricks in all?

2)

A ball is dropped from a height of 30 feet. Each time that it strikes the ground, it bounces up to .8 of its previous height.

a)

What height will the ball bounce up to after it strikes the ground for the 3rd time?

b)

What is its height after it strikes the ground for the nth time?

c)

How many times does the ball need to strike the ground before its height is less than 6 inches?

d)

What total distance does the ball travel before it stops bouncing?

3)

TARZAN PROBLEM: Tarzan jumps onto his grapevine and pushes off. On the first swing he goes a distance of 63 meters. As he swings back and forth, each subsequent distance is 10% less than the previous swing. a) What kind of sequence does Tarzans swinging distance form? Write an equation expressing swinging distance as a function of the swing number.

b)

How far does Tarzan go on the 10th swing?

c)

After how many swings will Tarzan be going no more than 0.2 meters?

4)

SHOPPING DELEMA: Bella goes shopping for a prom dress in April and decides to splurge and purchase a Versace for $360. She uses her moms MasterCard for the purchase and thinks nothing of it. However, Bella does not realize that the MasterCard she used comes with a 9% monthly interest. How much does Bella owe 4 months later?