Group Tuition with Mr Arthur Lee

H2 Math 9758

APGP WS2 - GP

Formulae:

AP GP
𝑢𝑛

𝑆𝑛

𝑆∞

1. The sum of the first n terms of a progression is 21n − 3𝑛2. Show that it is arithmetic.

3𝑛+1 −3
2. The sum of the first n terms of a progression is 2
. Show that it is geometric.

3. Determine if the sequence is geometric for 𝑡𝑛 : {2,6,18, … }. If it is geometric, find the next time in the sequence,
𝑡4 , and the nth term for the sequence, 𝑡𝑛 .

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4. Consider the geometric sequence {16, m, 81, n , …}. Find the values of m and n, if it is known that both are
positive numbers.

5. The sum of the first n terms of a progression is 𝑛2 + 3𝑛. Find an expression for the nth term and show that the
progression is arithmetic.

6. The sum of the first 𝑛 terms of a series, 𝑆𝑛 , is given by 𝑆𝑛 = −3𝑛2 + 13𝑛. Find the 𝑛𝑡ℎ term and show that the
terms are in an arithmetic progression.

7. Find the nth term and the 10th term in the geometric sequence, where the first term is 3 and the third term is
12.

8. The fifth term in a geometric sequence is 14 and the seventh term is 0.56. Find the common ratio, r, the first
term, a, and the nth term of sequence.

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9. The first two terms in a geometric sequence are 120 and 24. The kth term is 0.0384. Find the value of k.

10. A geometric sequence has a fifth term of 3 and a seventh term of 0.75. Find the first term, the common ratio
and the tenth term.

11. Find the number of terms in the geometric sequence: 0.25, 0.75, 2.25, …, 44286.75

12. If (𝑚 − 4), (2𝑚 + 1) and (10𝑚 + 5) are three consecutive terms of a GP with non-zero terms, find the
possible values of m.

13. Find the sum of the first 5 terms of these geometric sequences.
(a) {1, 4, 16, …}
(b) 𝑡𝑛 = 2(2)𝑛−1 , 𝑛𝜖{1,2,3, … }

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14. Find the sum to infinity for the sequence 𝑡𝑛 : {10,1,0.1, … }

15. Find the fourth term in the geometric sequence whose first term is 6 and whose sum to infinity is 10.

16. The first term of a geometric sequence is 440 and the 12th term is 880. Find 𝑆6 .

17. The 5th term of a geometric sequence is 1 and the 8th term is 8. Find 𝑆10.

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18. For the infinite geometric sequence {1, , , … } , find the sum to infinity.
4 16

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19. The sum of the first 𝑛 terms of a series is 𝑆𝑛 , where 𝑆𝑛 = 6 − 2𝑛−1. Prove that the series is a geometric
progression, and find its sum to infinity.

20. Given that 𝑆𝑛 is the sum of a geometric series where

𝑎 − 2 (𝑎 − 2)2 (𝑎 − 2)𝑛−1
𝑆𝑛 = 1 + + + ⋯+ ,
4 16 4𝑛−1
(i) Find the set of values of 𝑎 such that 𝑆, the sum to infinity exists,
(ii) Find the values of 𝑎 such that 256 𝑆4 = 175𝑆.

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21. The sum, 𝑆𝑛 , of the first 𝑛 terms of a series is given by 𝑆𝑛 = 𝑥 2𝑛 − 1, where 𝑥 ≠ 0,1.
Show that it is a geometric series. Find the range of values of 𝑥 for the series to converge and state the sum to
infinity of the series.

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22. The series 𝑢1 + 𝑢2 + 𝑢3 + ⋯ is a convergent geometric series with common ratio 𝑟. It is given that the sum of
the first ten terms is 𝐾 times the sum of the first five terms.
(i) Show that 𝐾 = 1 + 𝑟 5 .
𝑁
(ii) Show that the sum to infinity is 2−𝐾 , where 𝑁 denotes the sum of the first five terms.
1 1 1
(iii) Explain why the sum to infinity does not exist for the series 𝑢 + 𝑢 + 𝑢 + ⋯.
1 2 3

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23(a) The sum of the first 𝑛 terms of a sequence is given by
(𝑥 − 2)−𝑛 − 1, where 𝑥 is a constant.
(i) Show that the sequence is a geometric progression, and state in terms of 𝑥, its common ratio.
(ii) Find the set of values of 𝑥 for which the sum to infinity of the sequence exists.

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24. The sum to infinity of a geometric series is 162. The sum of the first three terms is 114. Find the least value of
n for which the sum to n terms differs from the sum to infinity by less than 0.2.

25. A GP has positive terms. The sum of the first three terms of the GP is 52. The fourth term is 9 times of the
second term. Find the common term and first term. Find the smallest value of n such that the sum to first n terms
of the progression exceeds 1000.

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26. Find the sum to infinity of the geometric series 7 + 7 + 343 + 16087 + … Find also the least number of terms of
the series that must be taken to give a sum which exceeds 99.99% of the sum to infinity.

27. Show that the geometric series 1 + 𝑒 −𝑥 + 𝑒 −2𝑥 + ⋯ has a sum to infinity for any real positive number x.
Given that x = 10, write down expressions for 𝑆𝑛 , the sum to n terms, and for 𝑆, the sum to infinity. Given also that
𝑆
the difference between 𝑆 and 𝑆𝑛 is less than 10100 , show that n > 10 ln 10.

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 2𝑛+1
28. The sum of the first n terms of a series is given by the expression 6 − 3𝑛−1 . By finding an expression for the nth
term of the series, show that this is a geometric series, and state the values of the first term and the common
ratio. Hence, find the sum to infinity.

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29. A geometric progression has positive terms. The sum of the first six terms is nine times the sum of the first
three terms. The seventh term is 320. Find the common ratio and the first term. Find the smallest value of n such
that the sum to first n terms of the progression exceeding 106 .

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30. The sum of the first n terms of a progression is 3𝑛 − 1. Show that it is geometric. State the common ratio and
the first term. Find the value of n for which the difference between the sum of the first 2n terms and the sum of
the first n terms is 6480.

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31. A geometric series has a common ratio, r, and an arithmetic series has first term 𝑎 and common difference 𝑑,
where 𝑎 and 𝑑 are non-zero. The first three terms of the geometric series are equal to the first, fourth and sixth
terms respectively of the arithmetic series.

(i) Show that 3𝑟 2 − 5𝑟 + 2 = 0

(ii) Deduce that the geometric series is convergent and find, in terms of 𝑎, the sum to infinity.
(iii) The sum of the first n terms of the arithmetic series is denoted by 𝑆.Given that 𝑎 > 0, find the set of possible
values of n for which S exceed 4𝑎.

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32. The sum of the first 100 terms of an arithmetic progression is 10 000. The first, second and fifth terms of this
progression are three consecutive terms of a geometric progression. Find the first term and the non-zero common
difference of the arithmetic progression.

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33. The sum of the first 𝑛 terms of a sequence {𝑢𝑛 } is given by the formula 𝑆𝑛 = 2𝑛(𝑛 − 3), where 𝑛 𝜖 ℤ+ .
(i) Express 𝑢𝑛 in terms of 𝑛, and show that the sequence {𝑢𝑛 } follows an arithmetic progression.

(ii) Three terms 𝑢3 , 𝑢𝑘 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑢38 of this sequence are consecutive terms in a geometric sequence. Find the value of
𝑘.
(iii) Explain why ∑∞
𝑟=1 𝑒
−𝑢𝑟
exists, and determine the value of ∑∞
𝑟=1 𝑒
−𝑢𝑟
, leaving your answer in exact form.

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34. The sum of the first n terms of a positive arithmetic sequence {𝑢𝑛 } is given by the formula 𝑆𝑛 = 4𝑛2 − 2𝑛.
Three terms of this sequence, 𝑢2 , 𝑢𝑚 and 𝑢32 , are consecutive terms in a geometric sequence. Find m.

35. A geometric series has first term 𝑎 and its sum to infinity is 5. The first and second terms of this geometric series
are the second and third terms of an arithmetic series respectively. Given that the sum of the first ten even-
numbered terms of the arithmetic series is −8, show that 𝑎 = 1.

Hence find the smallest value of 𝑛 such that the product of the first 𝑛 terms of the geometric series is less than
10−10.

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 3 𝑛
36. The sum of the first n terms of a GP is given to be 1 − (4) . Find the values of the first term and the common
ratio. Hence, or otherwise, find an expression for the sum to infinity of the odd numbered terms i.e. 𝑢1 + 𝑢3 +
𝑈5 + ⋯

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37. In a geometric progression of 20 terms where its common ratio is positive, the third term is 12 and the sum of
the first three terms is 21. Find the difference between the sum of the odd terms (𝑇1 , 𝑇3 , 𝑇5 , … ) and the sum of
the even terms (𝑇2 , 𝑇4 , 𝑇6 , … ).

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38. A geometric progression 𝐺 has first term 𝑎, common ratio 𝑟 and sum to infinity 𝑆. The sum to infinity of the
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second, fifth, eighth, ..., terms of 𝐺 is − 7 𝑆. Show that 𝑟 = − 3.

The 𝑛𝑡ℎ term of 𝐺 is given by 𝑢𝑛 . In another geometric progression 𝐻, the 𝑛𝑡ℎ term, 𝑣𝑛 , is given by 𝑣𝑛 =
𝑢2𝑛−1 𝑢2𝑛 . Write down 𝑣1 and 𝑣2 in terms of 𝑎 and 𝑟. Find the sum to infinity of 𝐻, giving your answer in terms of
𝑎.

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39. An arithmetic progression has first term 𝑎 and common difference 𝑑, where 𝑎 and 𝑑 are non-zero. The second,
seventh and ninth terms of the arithmetic progression are consecutive terms of a geometric progression. Find, in
terms of 𝑑, the sum of the first 20 odd-numbered terms of the arithmetic progression.

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40. Express the recurring decimal 20.03030 … as a fraction.

41. Express the recurring decimal 0.131313 … as a proper fraction

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