BAUKO CATHOLIC SCHOOL

MATHEMATICS 10
Name: Section:

LESSON 1: ARITHMETIC SEQUENCE AND SERIES

WEEK 2

E x p l o r e: At age 10, Carl Friedrich Gauss was asked by his teacher to add the counting
numbers from 1 to 100. Carl did, in less than a minute. How did he do it?

Adding the numbers from 1

to 100 will give us a sum of 5,050. We call this sum of an arithmetic series.

ARITHMETIC SERIES
- the sum of the terms of an arithmetic sequence.

n n
Sn= ( a1 +a n ) Sn = [ 2 a1+ ( n−1 ) d ]
2 2

If a n is given If a n is not given

Sample Problems:
1. Find the sum of the first 30 counting 2. Find the sum of the first 12 terms of the
numbers. arithmetic sequence 50, 47, 44, 41, 38, …

(These are the numbers from 1 to 30, 1+2+3+…+30) (a n is not given because a 12is unknown. Remember we
need to add 12 terms here. Our n is 12)
Solution: a 1=1 a n=30 n=30 Solution: a 1=50 d=−3 n=12
n n
Sn= ( a1 +a n ) Sn =
2 2
[ 2 a1+ ( n−1 ) d ]
30 12
S30= ( 1+30 ) S12= [ 2 ( 50 )+ (12−1 ) (−3)]
2 2
S30=15 ( 31 ) S12=6 [ 100+ ( 11 )(−3) ]
S30=465 S12=6 (100−33)
The sum of the first 30 counting numbers is 465.
S12=402
The sum of the first 12 terms of the given sequence
is 402.
3. Find the sum of the first 50 terms of the arithmetic sequence if the first term is 21 and the
twentieth term is 154.

First, solve for d using the formula Next, Find a 50

a n=a1 + ( n−1 ) d a 50=21+ ( 50−1 ) 7
a 50=21+(49)(7)
154=21+ ( 20−1 ) d a 50=21+ 343
154=21+19 d a 50=364
154−21=19 d
154−21=19 d
Thus,
133=19 d
n
d=7 Sn= ( a1 +a n )
2

Therefore, the sum of the first 50 terms is 9625

 50
S50= ( 21+364 )
2
Sn=9625

ARITHMETIC MEAN

The terms between a 1 and a n of an arithmetic sequence are called arithmetic means.

x+ y
We call the arithmetic mean of numbers x and y.
2
Sample problems:
1. Fill in the missing terms in the following 2. Insert four arithmetic means between 15 and
arithmetic sequences: 45.
a. 1, __, 7
We can easily get the arithmetic mean by 15, ___, ___, ___, ___, 45
dividing the two terms, 1 and 7, by 2.
In this problem, we cannot directly divide or
1+ 7 8 subtract the given terms. We need to solve
= =4 for the common difference first. We can use
2 2
the formula of the arithmetic sequence.
The missing term is 4.
a n=a1 + ( n−1 ) d
b. 12, 19, ___, ___, 40 Since the first term, a 1,and the 6th term, a 6 are
Since 2 consecutive terms are given, 12 given, we can substitute these to the formula.
and 19, we can get the common
difference by subtracting 12 from 19. a 6=a1 + ( 6−1 ) d
45=15+ ( 6−1 ) d
19−12=7
The common difference is 7 and we can 45=15+5 d
get the next terms by adding 7 to the 45=15+5 d
preceding term. 45−15=5 d
5 d=30
12, 19, 26, 33, 40 d=6

Now, we can add 6 to the first term to get the next

term.

15, 21, 27, 33, 39, 45