Progressioi s

1. Arithmatic Progression: Quantities are said to be inarithemtic progression when they increase or de-
crease by a common difference; a, a +d, a + 2d, a + 3d, ........The commondifferenceis found by subtracting
any term of the series from the next term. Thus the nth term of arithmetic progression is given by
(i) To find the sum of the given number of terms in an Arithmetic progression:
Let 'a' and 'b'be two quantities and Abe their arithmetic mean. Then since a, A, b are inA.P. Wemust have
b-A= A-a. Each being equal to the common difference.
(a + b)
This gives us A = ---
2
Between two given quantities it is alwayspossible to insert any number of t e . m such that the wholeseriesthus
formed shall be in AP. The terms thus inserted are called the arithmetic means.
(ii) Process for finding the sum of an AP.
Once you can find a pair of corresponding terms for anyAP,you can easily find the sum of the AP by using
property of averages.
i.e. sum= number ofterm x average.
In h t , this is the best process for £inding the sum of an AP it is much more superior to the process of findug the
sum of an AP using the expression ?(2a + (n - 1) d) .
2
2. Geometric Progression: Quantities are said to be in Geometric Progression when they increase or
decrease by a constant hctor. The constant factor is also called the common ratio and it is found by dividing
any termby the term immediatelypreceding .it.
If we examine the series a, ar, ar2, ar3, ar4,......
If 'n' be the number of terms and if I denote the last, or n'htenn, we have e = arn-'
(i) To find the Geometric mean between two given quantities:
Let 'a' and 'b' be the given quantities and 'n' the required number of means to be inserted. In allthere will be
n +2 terms so that we have to find a series n + 2 terms in GP ofwhich 'a' is the frrst and 'b' is the last.
Let 'r' be the common ratio:
Then b = term(n + 2) th term = arn+';
Hence, the required number of means are ar, ar2, .....am ,where 'r' has the value found in above equation.