MEP: Demonstration Project Unit 12: Number Patterns and Sequences

UNIT 12 Number Patterns and Sequences Activities

Activities

12.1 Lines
12.2 Regular Polygons
12.3 Towers
12.4 Ulam's Sequence
12.5 Bode's Law
12.6 Fibonacci Sequence
Notes and Solutions (1 page)

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MEP: Demonstration Project Unit 12: Number Patterns and Sequences

ACTIVITY 12.1 Lines

If three lines are arranged as in the diagram,

there are seven regions formed, with
three crossover points. 2
6
7
This investigation looks at the relationship between
• the number of lines (n) 3
and the maximum number of 4
5
• crossover points
• regions. n=3

1. Draw similar diagrams to find the maximum number of crossover points and regions
for:
(a) 2 lines (b) 4 lines (c) 5 lines.

2. Predict the result for:

(a) 6 lines (b) 7 lines.

3. (a) Generalise your results and write down formulae for the maximum number of
crossovers and regions.
(b) Use the formulae to predict the maximum number of crossover points and
regions for:
(i) 20 lines (ii) 100 lines.

Extension
1. What are the conditions which must be fulfilled to ensure that you get the maximum
number of crossovers?

2. Investigate the number and type of

enclosed regions, without necessarily
satisfying the conditions above,
for n = 3 , 4, 5 and 6.

(e.g. in the diagram, n = 4 , and the

enclosed regions are 2 triangles and
one quadrilateral)

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MEP: Demonstration Project Unit 12: Number Patterns and Sequences

ACTIVITY 12.2 Regular Polygons

u1 = 3 u2 = 4 u3 = 5 u4 = 6

Here is a sequence of regular polygons. Let un be the number of sides of the nth shape in
the sequence. You can see that:
u1 = 3 , u 2 = 4 , . . .

1. What is the value of u 5 and u 6 ?

2. What is the general formula for un ? Check your answer for u 7 .

3. How many diagonals can be drawn from a single vertex in each of the shapes above?

4. How many diagonals can be drawn from a vertex of the nth shape in the sequence?

5. How many diagonals in total can be drawn in each of the shapes above?

6. How many diagonals in total can be drawn in the nth shape?

Extension

For the second shape, when all the diagonals have been drawn,
1 there are 4 regions enclosed.
4 2
1. Repeat this process for the third and fourth shapes
3
2. Generalise your results to the nth shape.

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MEP: Demonstration Project Unit 12: Number Patterns and Sequences

ACTIVITY 12.3 Towers

How many cubes are needed to build a tower which has 100 steps?

At first sight, this might seem daunting but here are two ways of tackling this kind of
problem. Both methods demonstrate how powerful mathematical analysis can be.

1 Iteration
Here we find the formula which fits the data.

1. Complete the table opposite. No. of steps 1 2 3 4 5 6

2. Find the first and second No. of cubes 1 6

differences of the number
of cubes. What does this show?

3. Assuming the formula for un , the number of cubes in the nth tower is
un = an 2 + bn + c .
Using n = 1 , 2 and 3, write down three equations satisfied by a, b and c.
Solve these equations for a, b and c and use your formula to check u 6 .

4. What is the value of u100 ?

2 Summing the Series

Treat each of the towers in the following way . 1. Show that:
(i) (
u 4 = ( 4 × 1) + 6 × 2 2)
(ii) u5 = (5 × 1) + (10 × 2 ) .
2

2. Deduce that:
n (n − 1)
un = n × 1 + × 22 .
⇓ ⇓ ⇓ 2

3. Simplify the formula for un

and find u100 .

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MEP: Demonstration Project Unit 12: Number Patterns and Sequences

ACTIVITY 12.4 Ulam's Sequence

A sequence can be made for many reasons and it can be very interesting to try to invent the
rules for one and investigate what happens. Here is a sequence for which the rules were
invented by Stanislaw Ulam, an American mathematician.

Step 1 Start with the two numbers, 1 and 2.

Step 2 Look at all other numbers in turn, starting with 3.
Step 3 If a new number can be made by:
(a) adding two different numbers which are
already in the sequence, and
(b) this can be done in only one way,
then that new number belongs to the sequence.

For example:

3 is in Ulam's Sequence because 3 = 1 + 2, and both these numbers are already in the
sequence. Also, 3 cannot be made in any other way by adding two different numbers.

5 is NOT in Ulam's Sequence because although 5 = 2 + 3, (both of which are already in

the sequence), 5 also equals 1 + 4, so there is more than one way of satisfying the
part (a) of Step 3 above.

1. Write down the first 10 terms of Ulam's Sequence.

2. What are the next two numbers (after 3 and 5) which must be left out and why?
3. What is the first number left out which can be made in three ways?
4. Continue the sequence for another four terms.
5. What is the next consecutive pair of numbers after (3, 4)?

Extension
Investigate what would happen if:
(a) you used another pair of numbers as a starting point,
(e.g. change the order, use a zero as one of the pair, use a negative number).
(b) the sequence required three numbers to be added.

© CIMT, University of Exeter

MEP: Demonstration Project Unit 12: Number Patterns and Sequences

ACTIVITY 12.5 Bode's Law

In 1772, the German astronomer, Johann Bode, published his law which relates the distance
ratio:
distance of the planet from the Sun
xn =
distance of the Earth from the Sun
to n, the number which Bode used to specify each planet, as shown in the table below.

n =1 Venus
n =2 Earth
n =3 Mars
n =4
n =5 Jupiter
n =6 Saturn
n =7 Uranus
n =8 Neptune
n =9 Pluto
Not to scale

He stated his law as:

xn = 0.4 + 0.3 × 2 n − 1

1. Use this formula to find x 1, x 2, ..., x 9 . Planet Distance from Sun

(in millions of km)
2. Find the first and second differences of this sequence.
Mercury 57.9
What do you notice?
Venus 108.2
Earth 149.6
3. The actual distances are given in the table opposite. Mars 227.9
Find the actual values of Jupiter 778.3
Saturn 1427.0
x1  =
108.2 
, x3 =
227.9  Uranus 2870.0
, x 5 , etc.
 149.6   149.6  Neptune 4497.0
Pluto 5907.0
and compare with the predicted values from Bode's Law.

4. A large number of asteroids are found at about 433.8 × 10 6 km from the Sun.
Does Bode's Law provide confirmation that there was once a single planet at this
position? [Hint: consider x 4 .]

5. Do the data support the view that Neptune and Pluto were once a single planet?

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MEP: Demonstration Project Unit 12: Number Patterns and Sequences

ACTIVITY 12.6 Fibonacci's Sequence

The Italian mathematician, Leonardo de Pisa (nicknamed Fibonacci) lived from about
AD1170 to 1250. He devoted much of his time and effort to the study of the so-called
Fibonacci numbers:
13

1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, ... 8

This sequence appears frequently in the natural 2

world, such as the pattern of reproduction in bees KEY
1
(shown opposite), the arrangement of leaves on Female

stems, petals on flowers and spirals on cones. Male

1

Pattern of bee reproduction

1. Write down the next seven numbers in the sequence.

2. What is the general formula which generates the next number?

3. Consider the numbers:

2, 3, 5, 8

Multiply the two outside numbers and then the two inside numbers and note the
difference.
Try this with other sets of four consecutive Fibonacci numbers. What do you notice?

4. Square each of the first five consecutive Fibonacci numbers and add the results.
Then multiply the fifth and sixth terms. What do you notice?
Now square and add the first six numbers and multiply the 6th and 7th numbers.
Generalise your results.

5. Consider the ratio of consecutive Fibonacci numbers.

1 1 2 3
= 1, = 0.5 , = 0.6˙ , = 0.6 , . . .
1 2 3 5
To what number does this sequence tend? (This is called the limit of the sequence.)
−1 + 5
[Hint: Check the value of .]
2

Extension
Investigate sequences obeying the Fibonacci relationship but with different starting values,
e.g. replace (1, 1) by (1, 3).

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