Sequence and Series

Progressions

Department of Placement Training

 Types :

In mathematics, there are three different types of progressions. They are:

 Arithmetic Progression (AP)

 Geometric Progression (GP)

 Harmonic Progression (HP)

Department of Placement Training

Notation in AP :

In AP, we will come across three main terms,

which are denoted as:

 Common difference (d)

 nth Term (an)

 Sum of the first n terms (Sn)

Department of Placement Training

Common Difference in Arithmetic Progression:

In this progression, for a given series, the terms used are the first term, the common
difference between the two terms and nth term.
Suppose, a1, a2, a3, ……………., an is an AP,
then; the common difference “ d ” can be obtained as;

d = a2 – a1 = a3 – a2 = ……. = an – an – 1

Where “d” is a common difference. It can be positive, negative or zero.

Department of Placement Training

First Term of AP:

The AP can also be written in terms of common difference, as follows;

a, a + d, a + 2d, a + 3d, a + 4d, ………. ,a + (n – 1) d

where “a” is the first term of the progression.

Department of Placement Training

Formulas :
There are two major formulas we come across when we learn about Arithmetic
Progression, which is related to:
 The nth term of AP
 Sum of the first n terms

nth Term of an AP :
The formula for finding the n-th term of an AP is:
an = a + (n − 1) × d
Where
a = First term
d = Common difference
n = number of terms
an = nth term

Department of Placement Training

Example:

Find the nth term of AP: 6, 13, 20, …., an, if the number of terms are 15.

Department of Placement Training

Sum of N Terms of AP :

For any progression, the sum of n terms can be easily calculated. For an AP, the sum of the
first n terms can be calculated if the first term and the total terms are known. The formula
for the arithmetic progression sum is explained below:

Consider an AP consisting “n” terms.

S = n/2[2a + (n − 1) × d]

Department of Placement Training

Example:

Let us take the example of adding natural numbers up to 15 numbers.

Department of Placement Training

Sum of AP when the Last Term is Given:

Formula to find the sum of AP when first and last terms are given as follows:

S = n/2 (first term + last term)

Department of Placement Training

Formula Lists:

General Form of AP a, a + d, a + 2d, a + 3d, . . .

The nth term of AP an = a + (n – 1) × d

Sum of n terms in AP S = n/2[2a + (n − 1) × d]

Sum of all terms in a finite AP with the last term as ‘l’ = n/2(a + l)

Department of Placement Training

Example 1:

Find the value of n. If a = 10, d = 5, an = 95.

Department of Placement Training

Example 2:

Find the 20th term for the given AP: 3, 5, 7, 9, ……

Department of Placement Training

Example 3:

Find the sum of first 30 multiples of 4.

Department of Placement Training

General Form of GP :

The general form of Geometric Progression is:

a, ar, ar^2, ar^3, ar^4,…,a^n
Where,
a = First term
r = common ratio
a^n = nth term

Department of Placement Training

nth Term of GP:
an = ar^n-1

Common Ratio:
Consider the sequence a, ar, ar^2, ar^3,……
First term = a
Second term = ar
Third term = ar^2
Similarly nth term, an = ar^n-1
Thus, Common ratio = (Any term) / (Preceding term)

For Example: r = t2 / t1 = ar / a = r

Department of Placement Training

Sum of N term of GP:

Suppose a, ar, ar^2, ar^3,……ar^n-1 is the given Geometric Progression.

Then the sum of n terms of GP is given by:
Sn = a+ar+ar^2+ ar^3+…+ar^n-1

The formula to find sum of n terms of GP is:

Sn = a[(r^n-1)/(r-1)] if r ≠ 1
Where,
a is the first term
r is the common ratio
n is the number of terms

Department of Placement Training

Question 1:

If the first term is 10 and the common ratio of a GP is 3. Then write the first five terms of GP.

Department of Placement Training

Question 2:

Find the sum of GP: 10, 30, 90, 270 and 810, using formula.

Department of Placement Training

Question 3:

If 2,4,8,…., is the GP, then find its 10th term.

Department of Placement Training

Harmonic Progression:

What is Harmonic Progression?

A Harmonic Progression (HP) is defined as a sequence of real numbers which is determined by

taking the reciprocals of the arithmetic progression that does not contain 0. In the harmonic
progression, any term in the sequence is considered as the harmonic means of its two
neighbours.
For example,

the sequence a, b, c, d, …is considered as an arithmetic progression; the harmonic progression

can be written as 1/a, 1/b, 1/c, 1/d, …

Department of Placement Training

Harmonic Mean = n /[(1/a) + (1/b)+ (1/c)+(1/d)+….]

Where,
a, b, c, d are the values and n is the number of values present.

Department of Placement Training

The nth term of the Harmonic Progression (H.P) = 1/ [a+(n-1)d]

Where,
“a” is the first term of A.P
“d” is the common difference
“n” is the number of terms in A.P

The above formula can also be written as:

The nth term of H.P = 1/ (nth term of the corresponding A.P)

Department of Placement Training

Relation Between AP, GP and HP :

For any two numbers, if A.M, G.M, H.M are the Arithmetic, Geometric, and Harmonic Mean
respectively, then the relationship between these three is given by

 G.M^2 = A.M × H.M,

where A.M, G.M, H.M are in G.P
 A.M ≥ G.M ≥ H.M

Department of Placement Training

Example 1:

Determine the 4th and 8th term of the harmonic progression 6, 4, 3,…

Department of Placement Training

Example 2:
Compute the 16th term of HP if the 6th and 11th term of HP are 10 and 18 respectively.

Department of Placement Training

Class Work
1. Find the sum of the sequence 2 + 22 + 222 + 2222 + ... Up to 50 terms.

a) 2(10(10^40 – 1) - 450)
b) 2/81(10(10^50 – 1) - 450)
c) 2(10(10^10 – 1) - 250)
d) 2(10(10^50 – 1) - 250)

Department of Placement Training

2 . How many multiples of 4 lie between 10 and 250?

a) 70
b) 60
c) 80
d) 65

Department of Placement Training

3. In the first hour, a tortoise covered a distance of 10 m, in the second hour 5 m, in the 3rd
hour 2.5 m and so on. If it decided to walk infinitely, find the distance it can cover.

a) 10 m
b) 20 m
c) 15 m
d) 17 m

Department of Placement Training

4. There are four numbers. The first three are in G.P. and the last three in A.P. with common
difference 6. If the first number is the same as the fourth, find the product of second and
third numbers.

a) -8
b) 8
c) -9
d) 12

Department of Placement Training

5. If 7 times the seventh term of an A.P. is equal to 11 times its eleventh term, the value of
eighteenth term of the A.P. is

a) 0
b) -8
c) 18
d) 77

Department of Placement Training

6. Divide 20 into four parts which are in A.P. and such that the product of the first and fourth
is to the product of the second and third in the ratio 2:3. Find the product of the first and
fourth term of the A.P.

a) 12
b) 16
c) 20
d) 25

Department of Placement Training

7. Find the sum of the first 6 terms of the G.P. 3, 9/2, 27/4, 81/8, …

a) 1995/32
b) 2015/32
c) 1875/6
d) 2335/32

Department of Placement Training

8. A bouncing tennis ball rebounds each time to a height equal to one half the height of the
previous bounce. If it is dropped from a height of 16 m, find the total distance it has
travelled when it hits the ground for the 10th time.

a) 47 15/16
b) 37 5/16
c) 67 11/16
d) None

Department of Placement Training

9. The sum of three numbers in G.P. is 14. If the first two terms are each increased by 1 and
the third term is decreased by 1, the resulting numbers are in A.P. Find the product of these
three numbers.

a) 125
b) 64
c) 216
d) 124

Department of Placement Training

10. There are four numbers such that the first three of them form an Arithmetic Progression
and the last three form a Geometric Progression. The sum of the first and the third is 2 and
that of second and fourth is 26. What is the sum of first and fourth number?

a) 85 13/25
b) 25 73/85
c) 83
d) None

Department of Placement Training

11. Find the 25th term of the sequence: 42, 40 3/4 , 39 1/2 , ...

a) 12
b) 14
c) 11
d) 10

Department of Placement Training

12. The sum of the sixth and sixteenth terms of an arithmetic progression is 100. What is the
sum of the first 21 terms of the arithmetic progression?

a) 1100
b) 1150
c) 1050
d) 1250

Department of Placement Training

13. Ram saved Rs.500 in the first week and saved in subsequent weeks with a constant
increase. If his saving in the 30th week is Rs.1283, find the total money saved by him.

a) 24745
b) 26745
c) 25745
d) None

Department of Placement Training

14. How many terms of the sequence – 88, – 84, – 80, ... must be added to get the sum of
the sequence as zero?

a) 22
b) 21
c) 23
d) 24

Department of Placement Training

15. If A.M. and G.M. of two numbers is 10 and 8 respectively, then find their H.M..

a) 9
b) 12
c) 9
d) 6.4

Department of Placement Training