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The sum to infinity of a geometric sequence is 27/2 while the sum of the first three terms is 13. Find the sum of the first 5 terms.
Thank you for your help.
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We have
S = = + = + (1)
Notice that the infinite sum in parentheses of the right-most side is S, again. // It is the KEY IDEA #1.
Based on given info, replace in (1) S by and replace the sum of the first three terms by 13. You will get
= , or, which is the same
= . (2).
In (2), replace S by as it is given. // It is the KEY IDEA #2.
You will get = , which implies = .
Hence, q = . Thus we just found the common ratio of the progression; it is q = .
Now we are at the finish line.
Similar to (1), we have
S = = + = + (3)
You can re-write it as
S = + , (4) // It is the KEY IDEA #3.
where is the sum of the first 5 terms, which is under the question.
Now from (4)
= = = = = = = = = .
Answer. The sum of the first 5 terms of the given GP is .
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