GRADE 12 SEQUENCES AND SERIES WORKSHEET

1 Write the following in sigma notation;

(a) 16  8  4  2  ... for 20 terms
(b) 125 + 120 + 115 + 110 + … for n terms
(c) 2  3  2  5  2  7  ... for 50 terms
2 5 8
(d)   ⋯ for 15 terms
3 6 9
1 3 5 7
(e) 1 ; 2 ; 3 ; 4 ; . . . n terms
7 10 13 16
2 Evaluate the following:

20 12
(a)  (2k  3)
k 3
(b)  3(0,5)
k 1
k 1

 4
(c)  2(
n 1
1 n 1
3
) (d) x
x 1
2
 x 1 
(e) 7+9+11+ . . . + 235 (f) 1 21  41  81  ⋯  1024
1

n
3
Given:  (5k  3) Determine:
k 1
(a) The 25th term
(b) The sum of the first 25 terms
4 Find the value of n:
n
(a)  (5k  2)  255
k 1
n
(b) 
p 1
3
2
(2)p 1  766,5

(c)  4(n )
k 1
k 1
5

5 If Sn  4n 2  1 , determine
(a) The first three terms of the sequence.
(b) The sum of 20 terms
(c) The 20th term
(d) The nth term
5 Calculate the sum of the first 50 terms of the following series:
1
(a) 2
 2  41  4  81  6  ⋯
1
(b.) 2
 4  41  7  81  10  ⋯
6 The second term of an arithmetic sequence is – 4 and the sum of the first six
terms of the sequence is 21. Find the 50th term
7 5 ; x ; y is an arithmetic sequence and x ; y ; 81 is a geometric sequence.
All the terms in the sequence are integers.
Calculate the values of x and y.
8 The following is an arithmetic series: x  x 2  15  ⋯ .
(a) Determine the value of x
(b) Determine the sum of the first 50 terms.
9 What type of series is y 2  xy  x  ..... ? Give a reason.

1
10 Given Tn  3 n 1 , Which term is the first to exceed 20 000?
11 The sum of the second and third terms of a geometric sequence is 280.
The sum of the fifth and sixth terms of the sequence is 4375.
Determine:
(a) The common ratio
(b) The sum to 10 terms.
12 Find the value of x for the following convergent geometric sequence:

(a) ( x  2) ; ( x  2)2 ; ( x  2)3 ; ⋯

2 3
(b) 3(2 x  1) ; 3(2 x  1) ; 3(2 x  1) ; ⋯
(c. ) 5(1  2 x ) ; 5(1  2 x )2 ; 5(1  2 x )3 ; ⋯
13 The second and fourth term of a convergent geometric series is 36 and 16
respectively.
(a) find the 10th term

(b) find the sum to infinity.

14 If x  1 ; x  1 ; 2 x  5 are the first three terms of a convergent

geometric sequence.
(a) Calculate the value of x.
(b) The sum to infinity of the series.

15 The sum of the first four terms of a geometric sequence is 7,5.

The sum of the following four terms is 120. Determine the sum of 20 terms
of the sequence.
16 Three numbers are in arithmetic sequence and their sum is 21.
If the first number is increased by 1 , the second number is increased by 3
and the third number by 10, then the new numbers are in geometric sequence.
Find the original three numbers.

17 Nadia decided to make a beaded necklace consisting of concentric rows of

beads.
The first row consisted of 250 beads, the second row of 275 beads, the third
row of 300 beads and so on.
Calculate the number of rows her necklace would consist of if she used 4650
beads.
18 Mary’s pocket money starts with R720 per year and increases by R60 per year.
Her expenses amount to R640 in the first year and increase by R40 per year.
How long will it take her to save at least R600?
Exclude any interest earned on the money.
19 A shrub of height 110cm is planted. At the end of the first year the shrub’s
height is 120 cm. Thereafter the growth of the shrub each year is half of its
growth the previous year. Show that the height of the shrub will never exceed
130 cm.