Geometric Series

Name Period #

Suppose one evening, you text two people within 5 minutes to spread some gossip.
Those two people then both text two new people within 5 minutes to pass along the
same gossip, and so on. The number of people texted in each 5 minute period forms a
geometric sequence.

TIME 8:00 8:05 8:10 8:15 8:20 8:25 8:30

People Contacted 1 2 4 8 16 32 64

The TOTAL number of people that know the rumor now at each time is a SUM of the
terms of the geometric sequence.

Definition 1: The sum of the terms of a geometric sequence forms a geometric

_______________________.

S1  1 1 person knows the rumor at 8:00 PM (YOU)

S2  1  2  3 3 people know the rumor at 8:05 PM

S3  1  2  4  7 7 people know the rumor at 8:10 PM

AND SO ON…

THE FORMULA FOR EVALUATING PARTIAL SUMS:

The partial sum of the first n terms of a geometric series with first term a1 and
common ratio r  1 is given by the formula:

a1 1  r n 
Sn 
1 r
Ex 1: Using sigma notation to find partial sums of geometric series looks very familiar
to what we did with arithmetic series:
12

Give the sum  2(3

n 1
n
)

This is equal to 2(3) + 2(32) + 2(33) + …+ 2(312)

12

So use the formula to give the sum  2(3

n 1
n
) =

2) Eric calls 4 people within 10 minutes of his son’s birth to pass along the news. They
each pass along the news to 4 new people within 10 minutes, and so on. How many total
people have heard the news in 1 hour?

3) Write the geometric series 3 + 6 + 12 + … + 96 in sigma notation and find its sum.

3) Write the geometric series 1 + 4 + 16 + … + 4096 in sigma notation and find its sum.

4) Give the sum  3(2

n 1
n 1
)
 Geometric Series Practice Worksheet 1
Name Period #

Examine the geometric sequence 2, 6, 18, … for questions 1 – 3.

1) Give the common ratio ______________
2) Give the fourth and fifth term ______________
3) Give the partial sums S1, S2, S3, S4

S1 = __________________, S2 = __________________, S3 = __________________, S4 = __________________

Write the word or phrase that correctly completes each statement below.
4) A geometric __________ is the sum of the terms in a geometric ________________.

5) Add the first five terms of a geometric series to find the fifth partial ____________.

Give each sum.

6) the first 15 terms of 2 + 6 + 18 + 54 + … ______________

7) the first 10 terms of 100 + 20 + 4 + … ______________

8) 3 + 6 + 12 + … + 6,144 ______________

Write each geometric series in SIGMA NOTATION and find its SUM.
9) 3 + 12 + 48 + … + 12,288 10) 200 + 100 + 50 + … + 1.5625

Sigma Notation: ___________ Sigma Notation: ___________

Sum: ____________________ Sum: ____________________