2022 AMC 10B Problems/Problem 15

Problem

Let $S_n$ be the sum of the first $n$ term of an arithmetic sequence that has a common difference of $2$ . The quotient $\frac{S_{3n}}{S_n}$ does not depend on $n$ . What is $S_{20}$ ?

$\textbf{(A) } 340 \qquad \textbf{(B) } 360 \qquad \textbf{(C) } 380 \qquad \textbf{(D) } 400 \qquad \textbf{(E) } 420$

Solution 1

Suppose that the first number of the arithmetic sequence is $a$ . We will try to compute the value of $S_{n}$ . First, note that the sum of an arithmetic sequence is equal to the number of terms multiplied by the median of the sequence. The median of this sequence is equal to $a + n - 1$ . Thus, the value of $S_{n}$ is $n(a + n - 1) = n^2 + n(a - 1)$ . Then, $\frac{S_{3n}}{S_{n}} = \frac{9n^2 + 3n(a - 1)}{n^2 + n(a - 1)} = 9 - \frac{6n(a-1)}{n^2 + n(a-1)}.$ Of course, for this value to be constant, $6n(a-1)$ must be $0$ for all values of $n$ , and thus $a = 1$ . Finally, we have $S_{20} = 20^2 = \boxed{\textbf{(D) } 400}$ .

~mathboy100

Solution 2 (Quick Insight)

Recall that the sum of the first $n$ odd numbers is $n^2$ .

Since $\frac{S_{3n}}{S_{n}} = \frac{9n^2}{n^2} = 9$ , we have $S_n = 20^2 = \boxed{\textbf{(D) } 400}$ .

~numerophile

Solution 3

Let's say that our sequence is $a, a+2, a+4, a+6, a+8, a+10, \ldots.$ Then, since the value of n doesn't matter in the quotient $\frac{S_{3n}}{S_n}$ , we can say that $\frac{S_{3}}{S_1} = \frac{S_{6}}{S_2}.$ Simplifying, we get $\frac{3a+6}{a}=\frac{6a+30}{2a+2}$ .

We can simplify further to get $\frac{a+2}{a}=\frac{a+5}{a+1}$ .

Solving for $a$ , we get that $a=1$ . Now, we proceed similar to the previous solutions and get that $S_{20} = 20^2 = \boxed{\textbf{(D) } 400}$ .

Video Solution 1

https://youtu.be/7ztNpblm2TY

~Education, the Study of Everything

2022 AMC 10B (Problems • Answer Key • Resources)
Preceded by Problem 14	Followed by Problem 16
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