Art of Problem Solving
2003 AMC 10B PROBLEMS/PROBLEM 24
2003 AMC 10B
Problems/Problem 24
Contents [hide]
1 Problem
2 Solution 1
3 Solution 2
4 Solution 3
5 Video Solution by SpreadTheMathLove
6 See Also
Problem [edit]
The first four terms in an arithmetic sequence are
, , , and , in that order. What is the
fifth term?
Solution 1 [edit]
The difference between consecutive terms is
Therefore we can
also express the third and fourth terms as
and Then we can set them equal to and
because they are the same thing.
Substitute into our other equation.
But cannot be because then the first term
would be and the second term while
the last two terms would be equal to Therefore
Substituting the value for into any of
the equations, we get Finally,
Solution 2 [edit]
Because this is an arithmetic sequence, we
conclude from the first two terms that the common
difference is . Therefore, and
. If we multiply and , we see:
Because , by basic multiplication, is , we
have
Now that we have in terms of , we substitute in
in for in (the fourth term). This leaves us
with .
Recall that can be written as . Thus,
. Substitute in in for , and we
see:
Aha! This means , the common difference, is
. Now, all we need to do is
find the fifth term, which is just . We can
substitute known values to solve:
.
~SXWang
Solution 3 [edit]
From the first two terms, we can figure out the
common difference, .
This means that the third, fourth and fifth terms are
, and respectively.
The third term is also equal to , so
, which can be rearranged to
.
Dividing by y, we have .
happens to be the fourth term. Therefore,
Now that we have , we can substitute it into an
equation above, like .
As mentioned earlier, the fifth term we want in the
end is equal to . Substitute some more
and...
(Alternatively, like the above solutions suggest, you
could also use the admittedly easier as the
final step.)
~ a seesaw named owlly81 ~
Video Solution by
SpreadTheMathLove [edit]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wzNnrj51BAQ
See Also [edit]
2003 AMC 10B (Problems • Answer Key
• Resources)
Preceded by Followed by
Problem 23 Problem 25
1 • 2 • 3 • 4 • 5 • 6 • 7 • 8 • 9 • 10 • 11 • 12
• 13 • 14 • 15 • 16 • 17 • 18 • 19 • 20 • 21 •
22 • 23 • 24 • 25
All AMC 10 Problems and Solutions
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Mathematics Competitions.
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