Saturday, 28 July 2018

sequences and series - Solve the arithmetic progression given the sum of first 4 elements, and the sum of the first and 5th element



I'm trying to solve an arithmetic progression (find the first few elements: a1, a2, a3, ...).



I'm given S4 (sum of the first 4 elements of a sequence) = 14 and the sum of the first a1 and 2 * 5th element, 2*a5 = 0.



Simply put: S4 = 14, a1 + 2a5=0



I tried using the formula (plugging in the values) for the sum of the first n-terms of an arithmetic sequence, but I can't solve it since I don't have neither a1 nor d.




What's the correct way of solving this?


Answer



S4=142a+3d=7(1.) 



a+2a5=0a+2a+8d=0a=8d3(2.) 



Substituting (2.)  in (1.) 



16d3+3d=77d3=7d=3(3.) 




From (2.)  and (3.) 
a=83.3a=8



Hence the A.P is 8,5,2,1,4....


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