ALGEBRA - 4

SNAPSHOT

 Sequence and Series – AP, GP etc.

 Arithmetic Progression (AP) and Arithmetic Mean
 Geometric Progression (GP) and Geometric Mean
 Arithmetico – Geometric Series
 Method of Partial Fractions
Sequence and Series

Arithmetic Progression

Numbers are said to be in Arithmetic Progression (A.P.) when the difference between
any two consecutive numbers in the progression is constant i.e. in an Arithmetic
Progression the numbers increase or decrease by a constant difference.
Each of the following series forms an Arithmetical Progression: 2,
6, 10, 14…
10, 7, 4, 1, -2…
a, a + d, a + 2d, a + 3d…

Example:
1. If the 7th term of an Arithmetical Progression is 23 and 12 th term is 38 find the
first term and the common difference.
Answer: 7 th term = 23 = a + 6d ----- (1)
12 th term = 38 = a + 11d ---- (2)
Solving (1) and (2) we get a = 5 and d = 3

2. How many numbers of the series 9, 6, 3 … should we take so that their sum is
equal to 66?
Answer: n[18 + (n  1)3]/ 2 = 66
n2 – 7n – 44 = 0
.·. n = 11 or -4.
The series is -9, -6, -3, 0, 3, 6, 9, 12, 15, 18, 21..
We can see that the sum of first 7 terms is 0. The sum of next four terms after 7 th
terms gives us the sum. Otherwise, if we count 4 terms backward from -9 we’ll get the
sum as -66.

3. What is the value of k such that k + 1, 3k – 1, 4k + 1 are in AP?

Answer: If the terms are in AP the difference between two consecutive terms will be the
same. Hence,
(3k – 1) – (k + 1) = (4k + 1) – (3k – 1)
2k – 2 = k + 2 i.e. k = 4.
TO INSERT ARITHMETIC MEANS BETWEEN TWO NUMBERS

Let n arithmetic means m 1, m2, m3… mn be inserted between two numbers a and b.
Therefore, a, m1, m2, m3, ….m n, b are in arithmetic progression.
Let d be the common difference.
Since b is the (n + 2)th term in the progression, b = a + (n + 1)d
Whence d = (b – a)/(n + 1)
Hence m1 = a + (b – a)/(n + 1), m2 = a + 2(b – a)/(n + 1).. and so on.

Example:
4. If 10 arithmetic means are inserted between 4 and 37, find their sum.
First Method:
Let the means be m1, m2, m3… m10. Therefore 4, m1, m2, m3… m10, 37 are in AP and 37
is the 12 th term in the arithmetic progression. Hence, 37 = 4 + 11d i.e. d = 3
Therefore means are 7, 10, 13 … 34 and their sum is 205.
Second Method:
We know that in an AP - the sum of first term + last term = sum of second term +
second last term = the sum of third term + third last term = .. and so on.
Therefore, 4 + 37 = m1 + m10 = m2 + m9 = m3 + m8 = m4 + m7 = m5 + m6 = 41.
Hence m1 + m2 + m3… + m9 + m10= (m1 + m10) + (m2 + m9)…+ (m5 + m6)
= 5 x 41 = 205.

Example:
5. The sum of three numbers in A.P. is 30, and the sum of their squares is 318. Find
the numbers.
Answer: Let the numbers be a – d, a, a + d
Hence a – d + a + a + d = 30 or a = 10
The numbers are 10 – d, 10, 10 + d
Therefore, (10 – d)2 + 102 + (10 + d)2 = 318
Or d = 3, therefore the numbers are 7, 10, and 13.

4
 ASSIGNMENT

3 1 1
1. For the A.P. 5 , 9 ,13 ,17............ , find the following:
4 2 4
(a) The 15th term
(b) Sum of the first 12 terms

2. The sum of how many terms of the AP -56, -49, -42, …. Would add up to zero ?

3. Consider the AP: 168, 157, 146, 135, … Another series is created by taking the 1 st, 4th,
7th, 10th, ….. terms of this AP. What is the 10th term of the new series thus formed ?

4. The sum of the first 10 terms of an AP is equal to the sum of the next 5 terms of the AP.
If the 15th term of the series is 85, find the value of the common difference.

5. In an AP having 15 terms, the 8th term is equal to 10. Find the sum of all the 15 terms of
the series.

6. If the sum of first 12 terms of an AP is equal to the sum of first 18 terms of the same AP,
find the sum of first 30 terms of the AP.

7. The sum of first 9 terms of an AP is 72 and the sum of the first 15 terms of the same AP
is 150. Find the sum of the first 21 terms of the same AP.

8. Raghav, the drunkard, is marooned on an island, left with a full one-liter bottle of ‘Old
Monk’ rum. To make the supply of rum last longer, he drinks 10ml of rum on the first
day, and fills the bottle with water. The next day, he drinks 20ml of the contents of the
bottle and again fills the bottle with water. The next day he drinks 30ml and repeats the
same process, and so on, till the bottle is empty. How much water did Raghav drink?
A. 50 liters
B. 49.5 liters
C. 50.5 liters
D. None of these

9. The first term of a series is S1 = 7. Subsequent terms are given by the equation
Sn – Sn-1 = 3n + 4 for n  2. The value of S50 is
A. 4018
B. 4025
C. 4014
D. None of these

10. Sarabhai finds the sum of first ‘n’ natural numbers. He observes that the sum is a three-
digit number in which all the digits are the same. How many numbers did Sarabhai sum?
A. 32
B. 37
C. 36
D. None of these
11. The odd numbers are arranged in 5 columns A, B, C, D and E as shown below:

A B C D E
1 3 5 7
9 11 13 15
17 19 21 23
25 27 29 31
.
.
Then the number 1005 is in column:
A. A
B. B
C. C
D. None of these

12. Series 1: 4, 31, 58, 85, 112… Series 2: 11, 48, 85, 122… The first number common to
both Series 1 and Series 2 is 85. Let T4 and T5 be the fourth and fifth numbers common
to both the series. Then the sum of T4 and T5 is:
A. 7163
B. 5165
C. 9161
D. None of these

13. y

0 1 2 3

A beetle moves on a graph paper as follows: In the first minute it moves from
(0, 0) to (1, 0). Thereafter it continues moving parallel to one axis or the other in the
direction as shown in the figure, moving one unit of distance in each minute. Then, after
exactly 2005 minutes, the beetle will be at what position:
A. (19, 44)
B. (25, 45)
C. (44, 19)
D. None of these

14. If S1 = 1/(1 – x), S2 = 1/(1 – S1), and Sn = 1/(1 – Sn – 1), for n  2 and x  0 then S204
is:
A. 1/(1 –x)
B. 1/x
C. (x – 1)/x
D. None of these

15. Find the sum S = 7 + 77 + 777 + 7777 ….. + 7777…7 where there are n digits in the
last term.
A. 7(10n –1)/9
B. 7(10n + 1 – 10)/81 –7n/9
C. 7(10n + 1 – 1)/9 – 7*10n
D. None of these
16. Let the infinite series S1 = 1/12 + 1/32 + 1/52 +… and the infinite series
S2 = 1/12 + 1/22 + 1/32 +… then,
A. S2 = 2S1
B. S2 = 3S1
C. S2 = 4 S1/3
D. None of these

17. The sum of three consecutive terms of an arithmetic progression is 48 and their product
is 3840. Then the smallest of these terms is:
A. 18
B. 20
C. 12
D. None of these

18. Three numbers a, b and c form an arithmetic progression with the first term a = 16. If 3
is added to the second term and 15 is added to the third term, the three resulting numbers
form a geometric progression. What is the smallest possible value for the third term of the
geometric progression?
A. 49
B. 1
C. 81
D. None of these

19. Numbers are arranged in groups as follows: {1}, {-2, -3}, {4, 5, 6},
{-7, -8, -9, -10}, ……. where there are n elements in the nth group. What is the sum of
the elements of 10th and 11th group?

20. In a sequence, every term after the second term is twice the sum of the preceding two
terms. If the ninth term of the sequence is 12 and the eleventh term is 30, find the
thirteenth term of the sequence.
1
21. If the first term of a GP is and the common ratio is -4, find the 10th term of the GP.
256

1 1
22. If in a GP, the sixth term is  and the ninth term is , find the first term?
9 243

3
23. The sum of the infinite terms of geometric series is . The sum of the 1st , 3rd, 5th, 7th,
2
9
………. terms of the same series is . Find the common ratio of the GP.
8
24.
Column1 Column2 Column3 Column4 Column5 Column6 Column7
Row1 1 3 5 7 9 11 13
Row2 15 17 19 21 23 25 27
Row3 29 31 33 35 37 39 41
. . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . .
 The odd numbers from 1 to 5101 are entered sequentially in 7 columns, as shown. The
number 3003 occurs in column a and row b. Find the value of a + b.
25. A number sequence has 100 elements. Any of its elements (except for the first and last
element) is equal to the product of its neighbors. The product of the first 50 elements, just
as the product of all the elements is 27. What is the sum of the first and the second element?
A. 10
B. 12
C. 28/3
D. None of these

26. If S = 2/5 + 6/25 + 12/125 + 20/625 + 30/3125… find the value of S.

27. The sum of the first 40 terms of an arithmetic progression equals 200, and the sum of
the next 40 terms equals 3500. What is the first term of the series?

28. The sum of the infinite terms of the series 1/7 + 2/7 2 + 3/73 +  is equal to:

29. The sum of the series 1(1!) + 2(2!) + 3(3!) + 4(4!) + … + n(n!) is ?

30. Hercules goes to fight Hydra, the monster that currently has 2000 heads. However,
every time Hercules kills some of Hydra’s heads the remaining heads double in number. So,
if Hercules kills one head right now, the number of heads will become 1999 x 2 = 3998. In
order to fight the Hydra, Hercules decides to double the number of arrows he has got each
time he kills Hydra’s heads. Presently, he has only one arrow and a single arrow can kill
only one head of Hydra. If Hercules starts attacking the Hydra once every minute and if
every time he attacks he uses all the arrows that he has, after how many minutes will he be
able to finish all of Hydra’s heads?
A. 4000mins
B. 2000mins
C. 1999mins
D. Hercules should give up hope of killing the Hydra.
E. cannot be determined

31. ‘Blackie’, the beetle, is sitting at the origin of the coordinate axis presently. He starts
crawling in this manner- 1 unit to the right, 1/2 units up, 1/4 units right, 1/8 units
down…continuing in this manner. At which point will ‘Blackie’ come to a stop?
A. (4/3, 2/5)
B. (3/2, 4/3)
C. (2/5, 4/3)
D. cannot be determined

32. Find the following sum

1 1 1 1
   ..... 
 9
A. 10
B. 10
11
C. 19
21
D. None of these
2 2
1 4 2
1 6 2
1  20 2
1

33. Two men X and Y started working for a certain company at similar jobs on January 1,
1950. X asked for an initial salary of Rs. 300 with an annual increment of Rs. 30. Y asked
for an initial salary of Rs. 200 with a rise of Rs. 15 every six months. Assume that the
arrangements remained unaltered till December 31, 1959. Salary is paid on the last day of
the month. What is the total amount paid to them as salary during the period?
A. Rs. 93,300
B. Rs. 93,200
C. Rs. 93,100
D. None of these

34. All the page numbers from a book are added, beginning at page 1. However, one page
number was mistakenly added twice. The sum obtained was 1000. Which page number was
added twice?
A. 44
B. 45
C. 10
D. None of these

35. For a Fibonacci sequence, from the third term onwards, each term in the sequence is
the sum of the previous two terms in that sequence. If the difference in squares of seventh
and sixth terms of this sequence is 517, what is the tenth term of this sequence? It is
known that every term of the sequence is a positive integer.
A. 147
B. 76
C. cannot be determined
D. None of these

36. Let S denote the infinite sum

2  5x  9x2 14x3  20x4  ..., where |x| <1 and the
coefficient of
 1
xn1 is n (n+3), (n=1,2,….). Then S equals
2
A. 2  x
1  x 
3

B. 2  x
1  x 
3

C. 2  x
1  x 
3

D. None of these

37. The sum of 3rd and 15th elements of an arithmetic progression is equal to the sum of 6 th,
11th and 13th elements of the progression. Then which element of the series should
necessarily be equal to zero?
A. 1st
B. 9th
C. 12th
D. None of these
38. Let
S1 be a square of side a. Another square
S2 is formed by joining the mid-points of
the sides of
S1 . The same process is applied to S2
to form yet another square
S3 , and so
on. If
A1, A2 , A3,....be the areas and
P1 , P2 , P3 , ... be the perimeters of
S1, S2 , S3 , .... ,
respectively, then the ratio
P1  P2  P3  ...
equals:
A1  A2  A3  ...

A.

2 1 2 
a

B.

2 2 2 
a

C.

3 2 2 
a
D. None of these

39. A ball is thrown upwards. It reaches up to a height of 30 m comes to the ground and
bounces back again and again. After each bounce it reaches to 2/3rd of its previous height.
Find the total distance covered by the ball till it comes to rest.
40. In a right angle triangle ABC, ten equidistance lines are drawn from
base AC. All the lines are parallel to the side BC of the triangle, as shown
in the adjoining figure. ACB = 900, and BC = 18cm. Find out the sum of
length of the ten lines?

41. If the ratio of harmonic mean between two positive numbers is to their geometric mean
is 12:13, then the numbers could be in the ratio
A. 12:13
1 1
B. :
12 13
C. 4:9
D. None of these

42. Amol was asked to calculate the arithmetic mean of ten positive integers each of which
had two digits. By mistake, he interchanged the two digits, say a and b, in one of these
ten integers. As a result, his answer for the arithmetic mean was 1.8 more than what it
should have been. Then b - a equals:
A. 1
B. 2
C. 3
D. None of these

n j
43. In a certain examination paper, there are n questions. For j=1,2,…,n, there are 2
students who answered j or more questions wrongly. If the total number of wrong
answers is 4095, then the value of n is
A. 12
B. 11
C. 10
D. 9

44. Consider the set Tn  n, n 1, n  2, n  3, n  4 , where n=1, 2, 3, …, 96. How many of
these sets contain 6 or any integral multiple thereof (i.e., any one of the numbers 6, 12,
18 ...)?
A. 80
B. 81
C. 82
D. None of these

3 5 7 9 19
45. Find the sum:    ........  .
4 36 144 400 8100
3 5 7 9
46. Find the sum:    ........ .
4 36 324 2916

47. If Tn+2 = Tn+1 –Tn for all natural numbers n and if T1 = 10.5, T2 = 8.5 find the value of
T100.
1 1 1 1
48. Find the sum:    ...............  .
3 7 7 11 1115 35  39
1 1 1 1
49. Find the sum:    ...............  .
1 3 5 3 5  7 579 95  97  99
50. A series of terms T1, T2, T3, ….. are defined such that T1 = 1, T2= 2 + 3, T3 = 4 + 5 + 6,
T4 = 7 + 8 + 9 + 10 and so on. Find T100.
 ASSIGNMENT ANSWERKEY

1 a)233/4 2 17 3 129 4 5 5 150 6 0 7 252

b)633/2
1
8 2 9 2 10 3 11 3 12 13 3 14 4
15 2 16 3 17 3 18 2 19 166 20 192 21 1024
22 27 23 1/3 24 219 25 2 26 25/32 27 -1127/32 28 7/36
29 -1127/32 30 2 31 1 32 4 33 1 34 3 35 4
36 1 37 3 38 2 39 180 40 90 41 3 42 2
43 1 44 1 45 99/100 46 117/128 47 -10.8 48 1/13 49 800/9603
50 500050