Review of Sequences

and Series
Objectives:

At the end of the lesson, the student is able to:

1. Illustrate a series.
2. Differentiate a series from a sequence.
Activity:
 Jason's classroom is on the second floor of the
school. He can take one or two steps of the stairs
in one leap. In how many ways can Jason climb
the stairs if it has 16 steps?
 Sequence - a function whose domain is the set of
positive integers or the set 1,2,3, … , 𝑛 .
- is succession of numbers in a specific order.
Each number in a sequence is called a term.
 Series
– represents the sum of the terms of a
sequence.
If a sequence is finite, we will refer to the sum of the
terms of the sequence as the series associated with the
sequence. If the sequence has infinitely many terms, the
sum is defined more precisely in calculus.
 A sequence is a list of numbers (separated by
commas), while a series is a sum of numbers
(separated by “+” or “-” sign ).
1 1 1
1, − , , − - Sequence
2 3 4
1 1 1 7
1− + − = - Associated series.
2 3 4 12
The sequence with 𝑛𝑡ℎ term 𝑎𝑛 is usually denoted by (𝑎𝑛 ), and
the associated series is given by
𝑆𝑛 = 𝑎1 + 𝑎2 + 𝑎3 + ⋯ + 𝑎𝑛
Examples:

Determine the first five terms of each defined

sequence, and give their associated series.
1. {3 − 𝑛}
2. {2 + 3𝑛 + 4𝑛2 }
3. { 𝑛2 }
1
4. { 𝑛 }
3 −1
Fibonacci Sequence – A sequence whereby each number is
the sum of the 2 numbers preceding it. It terms are
1,1,2,3,5,8,13, …
Arithmetic Sequence – a sequence in which each term after
the first is obtained by adding a constant (called the common
difference) to the preceding term.
If the 𝑛𝑡ℎ term of an arithmetic sequence is 𝑎𝑛 and the
common difference is 𝑑, then
𝑎𝑛 = 𝑎1 + 𝑛 − 1 𝑑
The associated arithmetic series with 𝑛 terms is given by
𝑛(𝑎1 + 𝑎𝑛 ) 𝑛[2𝑎1 + 𝑛 − 1 𝑑]
𝑆𝑛 = =
2 2
Geometric Sequence – a sequence in which each term after the first is
obtained by multiplying the preceding term by a constant (called the
common ratio).
If the 𝑛𝑡ℎ term of a geometric sequence is 𝑎𝑛 and the common
ration is 𝑟, then
𝑎𝑛 = 𝑎1 𝑟 𝑛−1
The associated geometric series with 𝑛 terms is given by
𝑎1 (1 − 𝑟 𝑛 )
𝑆𝑛 = if r ≠ 1
(1 − 𝑟)
𝑆𝑛 = 𝑛𝑎1 𝑖𝑓 𝑟 = 1
When −1 < 𝑟 < 1, the infinite geometric series
𝑎1 + 𝑎1 𝑟 + 𝑎1 𝑟 2 + ⋯ + 𝑎1 𝑟 𝑛−1 + ⋯
has a sum, and given by,
𝑎1
𝑆=
1−𝑟
Harmonic Sequence – If an arithmetic sequence, then the
𝟏
sequence with 𝑛𝑡ℎ term 𝒃𝒏 = is a harmonic sequence.
𝑎𝑛