ARITHEMATIC PROGRESSION

VINEET SHEKHAR
10TH E
 HISTORY
 Arithmetic progressions were first found in
the Ahmes Papyrus which is dated at 1550
BC. The names for these notions, however,
seem to have taken considerably longer. In
some cases there was no standard for how to
refer to them (even the term progression was
not necessarily a standard).
 STORY OF A.P.
 It is the first hour of the school day. The
fifth graders are excited to meet a new pet
that a classmate has snuck in a tiny
mouse. Squeals of laughter and excited
chatter greet the mouse as he is taken to
the front of the class. After the little guest
has been held up and happily displayed to
the entire class, he is quickly shoved into
the teacher’s desk for safekeeping.
There’s excitement in the air. The children cannot
wait to see the teacher’s face when she meets the
guest in her desk drawer.
The teacher walks in. She begins the class and
writes out the classwork on the board. When it’s
time to erase the board, she opens the drawer and
reaches in for the eraser. The scared, agile mouse
rushes past her hand and jumps out the drawer,
onto the floor, and vanishes out the door.
The teacher shrieks. Her expression sparks
guffaws around the room. Thrilled, happy faces all
around the classroom. The teacher is not amused.
Thanks to her experience, she knows it is best to
grab the attention of the students with cleverness,
than with anger.
“Alright, you have had your fun,” she says. “Raise your
hand if you brought the mouse to school. I will not send
you the principal’s office. But will only ask you to solve a
math problem.”
 
The class isn’t very sure. No hand goes up.
 
“Don’t worry. It will be an interesting math problem. I
promise,” she goads them. Slowly, a hand goes up.
 
The teacher smiles. “Really ... you? Sophie?!” she asks.
Sophie is a sharp girl, who is known to think on her feet.
“Tell me,” the teacher says, “What is the sum of the first
100 positive integers? This should keep you busy for a
while,” she adds.
Sophie thinks for a moment. She understands the problem
given to her:
                     1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + ... + 98 + 99 + 100
She quickly realises that there is a pattern and that it is for her to
find it. She ponders for a brief while. She sees that the first and last
numbers add up to 101. The second numbers from the first and last
also add up to 101. Similarly, the third numbers from the first and
the last too. And so on...
                                             1 + 100 = 101
                       2 +  99 = 101
                                             3 + 98 = 10
 ⋮
                                           48 + 53 = 101
                                             49 + 52 = 101
                                             50 + 51 = 101
With 100 numbers, she knows there are 50 such pairs. All of them
adding to 101.
So, the final total would be 50 × 101 = 5050.
Bingo! Sophie had solved the problem. “Ma’am, the answer is
5050,” she said triumphantly.
The teacher is impressed and applauds Sophie’s problem solving
ability. The mouse is all but forgotten.
 INTRODUCTION

Sequence: A list of numbers having

specific relation between the
consecutive terms is generally called
a sequence.

e.g. 1, 3, 5, 7,……… (next term to

a term is obtained by adding 2 with
it)
& 2, 6, 18, 54,…….( next term to a
term is obtained by multiplying 3
with it)
 INTRODUCTION

Arithmetic Progression: If various terms

of a sequence are formed by adding a
fixed number to the previous term or the
difference between two successive terms
is a fixed number, then the sequence is
called AP.

e.g.1) 2, 4, 6, 8, ……… the sequence of

even numbers is an example of AP
2) 5, 10, 15, 20, 25…..
In this each term is obtained by adding 5
to the preceding term except first term.
 INTRODUCTION

 The general form of an

Arithmetic Progression is
 a , a +d , a + 2d , a + 3d
………………, a + (n-1)d
 Where ‘a’ is first term and
 ‘d’ is called common
difference.
 INTRODUCTION

Common Difference - The fixed number

which is obtained by subtracting any
term of AP from its previous term.

If we take
First term of an AP as a
and Common Difference as d,
Then,
nth term of that AP will be

An = a + (n-1)d
 3, 7, 11, 15, 19 … a=3
d=4

Notice in this sequence that if we find the

difference between any term and the term
before it we always get 4. 4 is then called
the common difference and is denoted with
the letter d.
To get to the next term in the sequence we
would add 4 so a recursive formula for this
sequence is:

The first term in the sequence would

be a1 which is sometimes just written
as a
 Sum of n no. of terms

The sum of n terms, we find as,

Sum = n X [(first term + last term) / 2]

Now last term will be = a + (n-1) d

Therefore,

Sum(Sn) =n X [{a + a + (n-1) d } /2 ]

= n/2 [ 2a + (n+1)d]
 APPLICATION OF A.P.

1.Straight Line Depreciation
This is where an asset may be depreciated by a fixed
amount per year. eg If an asset costs $v when new, and is
depreciated by $d per year, its value each year can be
represented by an arithmetic progression
v, v-d, v-2d, ....

2. The thickness of a roll of paper where the first term is

the diameter of the core of the roll and twice the thickness
of the paper is the common difference.

3. Suppose you were building a picket fence on a regularly

sloping path with the top of the pickets being horizontal.
The lengths of the pickets will form an AP.

4. or building a ladder with sloping sides - the length of

each rung would form an AP