CHAPTER ONE

ARITHMETIC PROGRESSION
INTRODUCTION
It is a sequence of numbers with each consecutive term being different from the next by a fix
amount called the common difference. This difference (d) can either be negative or positive.
When the common difference is negative, the progression will be said to be decreasing and when
positive the progression will be increasing.
The common difference d =U2-U1=U3-U2=U4-U3
Expl; the common difference of 3, 5, 7, 9.. is

NB. Given the first term U1 and any other term Un, the common difference will be given by:
d= Un-U1
n-1
Expl : The first term of an A.P is 3 while the 12th term is 47. Present the first five terms.

1.1 THE GENERAL TERM

The definition of of an AP requires the following:
The first term (a)
The number of terms (n)
The law by which te successive terms can be found.
Consider the various terms to be U1, U2, U3,…etc
Years 1 2 3 ………… n-1 n
Term a+0d a+(1)d a+2d …………. a+(n-2)d a+(n-1)d
Term a a+d a+2d …………… a+(n-2)d a+(n-1)d

The first term U1=a

The second term U2=a+d
The third term U3= a+d+d= a+2d
The fourth term U4= a+2d+d= a+3d

The nth term Un= a+(n-1)d

Thus for a series of numbers in an arithmetic progression with the first term denoted a, the common
difference d and the term position n. The general term of the arithmetic progression will be given by the
formula Un= a+(n-1)d.

Expl 1:The third term of an AP is 3 while the fifth term is 8 calculate U8

Expl 2: Given that the general term Un of the infinite progression is 9,4,-1, -6………is of the form an+b,
fine the values of a and b. Also calculate the value of the 10th and 13th terms.

1.2 SUM OF TERMS IN AN AP

Consider Sn to be the sum of the first n natural numbers
Sn= U1 +U2 + U3+………..+Un where Un is the last term denoted l
Then Sn= a +( a+d)+ (a+2d)+…….+(l-d)+ l
And Sn= l + (l-d)+ (l-2d)+……..+(a+d)+ a
Adding 2S=(a+l)+(a+l)+ (a+l)+………(a+l)+ (a+l)
 2S= n(a+l)
S=n/2(a+l)
The sum of the first n terms of an arithmetic progression is therefore given by
Sn= n(a+l)
2
Knowing that the last term l (Un)= a+(n-1)d, substituting in the above equation gives
Sn= n/2(a+ a+(n-1)d
= n(2a +(n-1)d)
2

The sum of the first n terms of an arithmetic progression will be given by the formula
Sn= n[ 2a+(n-1)d] where n is the number of terms whose sum is being calculated.
2
Expl 1: Calculate the sum of the first 20 terms in the series 4, 6, 8, 10…

Example1. Mr Fuh saves money in a weekly thrifting scheme which she does in an arithmetic
progression. Considering that his first saving was 500frs and his incremental saving is 200frs, calculate
the total amount in his account two weeks to the end of the second year.

NB: Considering any three consecutive terms in an arithmetic progression a, b and c, the mean
called the arithmetic mean which is b is given by a+c=b or a+c=2b
2
The arithmetic mean is as well the average of the three terms. b= a+b+c/3

Example, Ngwa shared a certain sum of money amongst his three best students such that the amounts are
in an arithmetic progression. If the second child received 20000frs, Calculate the total amount shared.

NB: the difference between the sum of the first nth terms and the sum of the first n-1 terms is equals to the
n-1 term. That is Sn-Sn-1= Un
Example: the sum of the first 8 terms in an AP is 100 while the sum of the first 7 terms is 97. Calculate
a)The 8th term
b)The common difference
c)The first term
d)the sum of the first 10 terms

APPLICATIONS
1. The sum of three capitals in A.P is 420000fcfa .They are invested in the same year .The interest
produced by these capitals are in an A.P with 1000fcfa as common difference and their sum is 21000fcfa
The difference between the third and the first capital in 40000 FRS. Calculate the value of each capital and
the value of the interest of each capital.

Question 2)A father wants to share an amount of 57000frs among his four sons in such a way that their
corresponding shares are in an A.P. knowing that the third child received 15000frs.
Question three,)The manager of a factory shares a bonus of 1764000frs among 12 of his workers such that
the share of each worker surpass the share of the previous by 2/147 of the bonus. Calculate the amount
received by the first and sixth worker.

Question five:Fine the value of the eight term and the sum of the first ten terms of 2X+3, 4X+2, 8X-3

6)Deti saves money in a weekly thifting scheme making savings in an arithmetic progression. Given that
his first saving is 200frs and his incremental savings is 50frs
Determine his total savings two weeks from the end of the year.

Question eight)A sales agent at mula palm remitted eight sums of money by electronic cheques to his sale
manager at the head office. These sums were in an arithmetic progression with the first being
[Link] the common difference and the eight sums paid if the last was 530000frs

question nine)Kavan company began production last year. It produced 10000units. It is hoped that the
production will increase by 25units each year.
a)determine production in the fourth and tenth year.
b)Find the total production from start to when it has just increased production by 25% over the initial
figure.

Question 10)Mr Hope began a saving scheme work and this he does in an arithmetic progression. He finds
out that after making twenty savings, he had 1050000frs in his account and after forty savings, he had
accumulated [Link]
a)His initial saving
b)His account worth after 100 savings

Question eleven)The manager of ONGWANLA MUSIC CORPORATION after an international

expedition shared an amount of 4500000 FRS among 5 top ranking members of the team. The shares are
in arithmetic progression.
a) Calculate the share of each person knowing that the last person received 1200000 FRS
b) The last person invested his share at 5% compound interest p.a and after a certain duration, it yielded an
interest of 488520frs. Calculate the duration for the investment.
c)this person withdraws 1008480frs to finance for the purchase of equipment. the depreciation of this
equipment is in geometric progression with a common ratio of 0.80. the estimated life span of this
equipment is five years. Calculate the successive depreciations.

Question twelve)Titana intends to buy a Jeep costing 12000000frs and he intends to save towards this
goal in arithmetic [Link] made a first saving of 40000frs and the next time he saved 50000frs.
Determine how many times he must save in this manner in order to meet his objective.

Question 13)Three capitals whose amounts are in an arithmetic progression has been placed during two
years at 11% to a total interest produced of 1386frs. The difference between the first and the third capital
rises to 2400frs.
Calculate the three capitals
Q14) UBa always grant prizes to its 10 best student on the graduation day. The prizes are in an AP with
the first prize being 575,000F. During the year 2014, organizations present during that ceremony
contributed to the realization of this habit (price giving) .Below is the list of organizations that
contributed to that goal:

Organizations Amount contributed

UNVDA 500,000

BICEC BANK 575,000

AFRILAND FIRST BANK 600,000

UNITED BANK OF AFRICA 1,000000

SCB BANK 550,000

All the above organizations signed an agreement to support this price giving habit for 5years with their
usual contribution except BICEC bank that promised to increase its subsequent contributions to
850,000F yearly.

For the ceremony of December 2015, the university granted prizes to its ten (10) best students from the
1st to the 10th student respectively.

REQUIRED

(a) Will the common different be a positive or negative value? And why
(b) Calculate the amount that was distributed in December 2015
(c) Calculate the common difference
Calculate the prizes of the 2nd to the 10th best graduating students