REAL L IFE P ROBL EMS

INVOLVING
ARITHMETIC
S EQU ENCE
It is alarming that many people now are being
infected by HIV, as the president of the student body
in your school, you invited people to give a five-day
series of talks on HIV and its prevention every first
Friday of the month from 12 noon to p.m. in the
auditorium. On the first day, 20 students came.
Finding the talk interesting, these 20 students shared
the talk to other students and 10 more students
came on the second day, another 10 more students
came on the third day, and so on,
How many students came on the first day? 20 students
How about the second 30 students
day?
How about the third day? 40 students
No. of days First Day Second Day Third Day
No. of
20 30 40
Students

No. of
𝒂𝟏 𝒂𝟐 𝒂𝟑 𝒂𝟒 𝒂𝟓
days
No. of
20 30 40 50 60
Students

𝑎4 = 20 + 4 − 1 10 𝑎5 = 20 + 5 − 1 10
After a knee surgery, your trainer tells you to return
jogging program slowly. He suggests jogging for 12
minutes each day for the first week, thereafter, he
suggests that you increase that time by 6 minutes
per day. On what week will it be before you are up to
jogging 60 minutes per day.
 No. of Second
First Week Third Week
Weeks Week
Minutes each
12 18 24
day

No. of
𝒂𝟏 𝒂𝟐 𝒂𝟑 𝒂𝟒 𝒂𝟓
days
No. of
12 18 24 30 36
Students

𝑎4 = 12 + 4 − 1 6 𝑎5 = 12 + 5 − 1 6
 𝑂𝑛 𝑤ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑤𝑒𝑒𝑘 𝑤𝑖𝑙𝑙 𝑖𝑡 𝑏𝑒
𝑏𝑒𝑓𝑜𝑟𝑒 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑎𝑟𝑒 𝑢𝑝 𝑡𝑜 𝑗𝑜𝑔𝑔𝑖𝑛𝑔 60 𝑚𝑖𝑛𝑢𝑡𝑒𝑠 𝑝𝑒𝑟 𝑑𝑎𝑦?
𝑊ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑣𝑎𝑙𝑢𝑒 𝑖𝑠 𝑚𝑖𝑠𝑠𝑖𝑛𝑔? Value for 𝑛
60 = 12 + 𝑛 − 1 6 54 6
= 𝑛
60 = 12 + 6𝑛 − 6 6 6
60 = 6𝑛 + 6 9=𝑛
60 − 6 = 6𝑛
54 = 6𝑛