1.

4 Finite arithmetic series EMCDX

An arithmetic sequence is a sequence of numbers, such that the difference between
any term and the previous term is a constant number called the common difference
(d):
T
n
= a + (n 1) d
where
T
n
is the n
th
term of the sequence;
a is the rst term;
d is the common difference.
When we sum a nite number of terms in an arithmetic sequence, we get a nite
arithmetic series.
The sum of the rst one hundred integers
A simple arithmetic sequence is when a = 1 and d = 1, which is the sequence of
positive integers:
T
n
= a + (n 1) d
= 1 + (n 1) (1)
= n
{T
n
} = 1; 2; 3; 4; 5; . . .
If we wish to sum this sequence from n = 1 to any positive integer, for example 100,
we would write
100

n=1
n = 1 + 2 + 3 + + 100
This gives the answer to the sum of the rst 100 positive integers.
The mathematician, Karl Friedrich Gauss, discovered the following proof when he was
only 8 years old. His teacher had decided to give his class a problem which would
distract them for the entire day by asking them to add all the numbers from 1 to 100.
Young Karl quickly realised how to do this and shocked the teacher with the correct
answer, 5050. This is the method that he used:
Write the numbers in ascending order.
Write the numbers in descending order.
Add the corresponding pairs of terms together.
Simplify the equation by making S
n
the subject of the equation.
24 1.4. Finite arithmetic series