Digital Lesson

Geometric Sequences
and Series
 An infinite sequence is a function whose domain
is the set of positive integers.
a1, a2, a3, a4, . . . , an, . . .

terms

The first three terms of the sequence an = 2n2 are

a1 = 2(1)2 = 2
a2 = 2(2)2 = 8 finite sequence
a3 = 2(3)2 = 18.

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 A sequence is geometric if the ratios of consecutive
terms are the same.
2, 8, 32, 128, 512, . . .
8 4 geometric sequence
2
32  4
8
The common ratio, r, is 4.
128  4
32
512  4
128

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 The nth term of a geometric sequence has the form
an = a1rn - 1
where r is the common ratio of consecutive terms of
the sequence.
r  75  5
15
a1 = 15
15, 75, 375, 1875, . . .
a2 = a3 = a4 =
15(5) 15(52) 15(53)

The nth term is 15(5n-1).

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 Example: Find the 9th term of the geometric sequence
7, 21, 63, . . .

a1 = 7 r  21  3
7

an = a1rn – 1 = 7(3)n – 1

a9 = 7(3)9 – 1 = 7(3)8
= 7(6561) = 45,927

The 9th term is 45,927.

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 The sum of the first n terms of a sequence is
represented by summation notation.
upper limit of summation
n

a  a  a
i 1
i 1 2  a3  a4    an

index of lower limit of summation

summation


n1
4 n
 41
 4 2
 4 3
 4 4
 4 5

 4  16  64  256  1024
 1364
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 The sum of a finite geometric sequence is given by

 
n n
Sn   a1r i 1
 a1 1  r .
i 1
1 r

5 + 10 + 20 + 40 + 80 + 160 + 320 + 640 = ?

n=8
a1 = 5 r  10  2
5

S n  a1 1 
1 r
r n
    
5 1 
1 2
28
 5 1  256  5 255  1275
1 2 1   
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 The sum of the terms of an infinite geometric
sequence is called a geometric series.

If |r| < 1, then the infinite geometric series

a1 + a1r + a1r2 + a1r3 + . . . + a1rn-1 + . . .


a1
has the sum S   a1r  . i

i 0
1 r

If r  1 , then the series does not have a sum.

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 Example: Find the sum of 3  1  1  1 
3 9
r  1
3

 a1  3
S  
 1  r 
 1  1
3  
 3  3  3 3  9
1 1 4 4 4
3 3

The sum of the series is 9 .

4

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