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Difference between revisions of "1984 AIME Problems/Problem 1"

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=== Solution 3 ===
 
=== Solution 3 ===
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A better approach to this problem is to notice that from <math>a_{1}+a_{2}+\cdots a_{98}=137</math> that each element with an odd subscript is 1 from each element with an even subscript. Thus, we note that the sum of the odd elements must be <math>\frac{137-49}{2}</math>. Thus, if we want to find the sum of all of the even elements we simply add <math>49</math> common differences to this giving us <math>\frac{137-49}{2}+49=\fbox{93}</math>.
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A better approach to this problem is to notice that from <math>a_{1}+a_{2}+\cdots a_{98}=137</math> that each element with an odd subscript is 1 from each element with an even subscript. Thus, we note that the sum of the odd elements must be <math>\frac{137-49}{2}</math>. Thus, if we want to find the sum of all of the even elements we simply add <math>49</math> common differences to this giving us <math>\frac{137-49}{2}+49=\fbox{093}</math>.
  
 
== See also ==
 
== See also ==

Revision as of 10:10, 18 November 2017

Problem

Find the value of $\displaystyle a_2+a_4+a_6+a_8+\ldots+a_{98}$ if $\displaystyle a_1$, $\displaystyle a_2$, $\displaystyle a_3\ldots$ is an arithmetic progression with common difference 1, and $\displaystyle a_1+a_2+a_3+\ldots+a_{98}=137$.

Solution

Solution 1

One approach to this problem is to apply the formula for the sum of an arithmetic series in order to find the value of $a_1$, then use that to calculate $a_2$ and sum another arithmetic series to get our answer.

A somewhat quicker method is to do the following: for each $n \geq 1$, we have $a_{2n - 1} = a_{2n} - 1$. We can substitute this into our given equation to get $(a_2 - 1) + a_2 + (a_4 - 1) + a_4 + \ldots + (a_{98} - 1) + a_{98} = 137$. The left-hand side of this equation is simply $2(a_2 + a_4 + \ldots + a_{98}) - 49$, so our desired value is $\frac{137 + 49}{2} = \boxed{093}$.

Solution 2

If $a_1$ is the first term, then $a_1+a_2+a_3 + \cdots + a_{98} = 137$ can be rewritten as:

$98a_1 + 1+2+3+ \cdots + 97 = 137$ $\Leftrightarrow$ $98a_1 + \frac{97 \cdot 98}{2} = 137$

Our desired value is $a_2+a_4+a_6+ \cdots + a_{98}$ so this is:

$49a_1 + 1+3+5+ \cdots + 97$

which is $49a_1+ 49^2$. So, from the first equation, we know $49a_1 = \frac{137}{2} - \frac{97 \cdot 49}{2}$. So, the final answer is:

$\frac{137 - 97(49) + 2(49)^2}{2} = \fbox{093}$.

Solution 3

A better approach to this problem is to notice that from $a_{1}+a_{2}+\cdots a_{98}=137$ that each element with an odd subscript is 1 from each element with an even subscript. Thus, we note that the sum of the odd elements must be $\frac{137-49}{2}$. Thus, if we want to find the sum of all of the even elements we simply add $49$ common differences to this giving us $\frac{137-49}{2}+49=\fbox{093}$.

See also

1984 AIME (Problems • Answer Key • Resources)
Preceded by
First Question 		Followed by
Problem 2
1 • 2 • 3 • 4 • 5 • 6 • 7 • 8 • 9 • 10 • 11 • 12 • 13 • 14 • 15
All AIME Problems and Solutions
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