SOLUTION: Could someone please help me solve this word problem dealing with number sequences? A graphic artist makes $20000 his first year and gets $500 raise each year. Compute his tota

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Question 151997: Could someone please help me solve this word problem dealing with number sequences?
A graphic artist makes $20000 his first year and gets $500 raise each year. Compute his total salary and mean annual salary for 20 years of work.

Found 2 solutions by mangopeeler07, jojo14344:
Answer by mangopeeler07(462) About Me  (Show Source):
You can put this solution on YOUR website!
20,000+20(20,000)+20(500)=x

20,000+400,000+10,000=x

430,000=x

430,000/20=21,500

total salary=$430,000
mean annual salary=$21,500

Answer by jojo14344(1512) About Me  (Show Source):
You can put this solution on YOUR website!
We respect everybody here, but there's no harm in trying this one:
Total years working= 20 years
1st year earnings: $20,000
2nd year: $20,500..... adding $500 after the 1st year
So we can arrive to an eqn:
%2820000%2A20years%29%2B%28%28n-1%29%28500%29%29 ------> total salary
where n= no. of years. Why there's (-1) in the eqn? Because the increased started on the 2nd year. Continuing,
%28400000%29%2B%28%2820-1%29%28500%29%29
400000%2B9500
$409,500 ------------------------> Total salary.
For Mean Salary:
409500%2F20= $20,475 --------> Mean salary
Thank you,
Jojo