Precalculus : Pre-Calculus

Study concepts, example questions & explanations for Precalculus

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Example Questions

Example Question #11 : Sigma Notation

What is the proper sigma sum notation of the summation of  ?

Possible Answers:

Correct answer:

Explanation:

Given that the first term of the sequence is , we know that the first term of the summation must be , and thus the lower bound of summation must be equal to  There is only one option with this qualification, and so we have our answer.

Example Question #1 : Finding Terms In A Series

Consider the sequence:

What is the fifteenth term in the sequence?

Possible Answers:

Correct answer:

Explanation:

The sequence can be described by the equation , where is the term in the sequence.

For the 15th term, .

Example Question #1 : Terms In A Series

What is the sum of the first  terms of an arithmetic series if the first term is , and the last term is ?

Possible Answers:

Correct answer:

Explanation:

Write the formula to find the arithmetic sum of a series where  is the number of terms,  is the first term, and  is the last term.

Substitute the given values and solve for the sum.

Example Question #3 : Terms In A Series

Given the terms of the sequence , what are the next two terms after ?

Possible Answers:

Correct answer:

Explanation:

The next two terms are  and . This is the Fibonacci sequence where you start off with the terms  and , and the next term is the sum of two previous terms. So then

and so on.

Example Question #1 : Terms In A Series

What is the fifth term of the series 

Possible Answers:

Correct answer:

Explanation:

Let's try to see if this series is a geometric series.

We can divide adjacent terms to try and discover a multiplicative factor.

Doing this it seems the series proceeds with a common multiple of  between each term.

Rewriting the series we get,

 .

When 

.

Example Question #181 : Pre Calculus

What is the 9th term of the series that begins 2, 4, 8, 16...

Possible Answers:

256

1024

144

512

488

Correct answer:

512

Explanation:

In this geometric series, each number is created by multiplying the previous number by 2.  You may also see that, because the first number is 2, it also becomes a list of powers of 2.  The list is 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, 128, 256, 512, where you can see that the 9th term is 512.

Example Question #31 : Sequences And Series

What is the 10th term in the series:

1, 5, 9, 13, 17....

Possible Answers:

37

23

45

31

41

Correct answer:

37

Explanation:

The pattern in this arithmetic series is that each term is created by adding 4 to the previous one. You can then continue the series by continuing to add 4s until you've gotten to the tenth term:

1, 5, 9, 13, 17, 21, 25, 29, 33, 37

The correct answer, then, is 37.

Example Question #1 : Partial Sums Of Series

For the sequence 

Determine  .

Possible Answers:

Correct answer:

Explanation:

 is defined as the sum of the terms  from  to 

Therefore, to get the solution we must add all the entries from  from  to  as follows.

Example Question #2 : Partial Sums Of Series

Simplify the sum.

Possible Answers:

Correct answer:

Explanation:

The answer is . Try this for :

This can be proven more generally using a proof technique called mathematical induction, which you will most likely not learn in high school.

Example Question #3 : Partial Sums Of Series

In case you are not familiar with summation notation, note that: 

Given the series above, what is the value of  ?

Possible Answers:

Correct answer:

Explanation:

Since the upper bound of the iterator is  and the initial value is , we need add one-half, the summand, six times.

This results in the following arithmetic.

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