SOLUTION: If x = -1, find the value of 2013x^2013 + 2012x^2012 + 2011x^2011 + 2010x^2010 + . . . + 2x^2 + x.

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Question 902538: If x = -1, find the value of 2013x^2013 + 2012x^2012 + 2011x^2011 + 2010x^2010 + . . . + 2x^2 + x.

Answer by Theo(13342)   (Show Source): You can put this solution on YOUR website!
i'm not sure if this is the way you're supposed to solve this, but i do believe i did solve it.

it doesn't look like an arithmetic series or a geometric series so those formulas don't appear to work with this.

the first term is x
the second term is 2x^2
the third term is presumably 3x^3
the fourth term is presumably 4x^4
the 2013th term is 2013x^2013 as shown.

when x = -1, this turns out to be:

first term is -1
second term is 2
third term is -3
fourth term is 4
etc.

i then looked for a pattern.
the pattern i found is shown here.
n	An	Sn
1	-1	-1
2	2	1

3	-3	-2
4	4	2

5	-5	-3
6	6	3

7	-7	-4
8	8	4

9	-9	-5
10	10	5

11	-11	-6
12	12	6

13	-13	-7
14	14	7

15	-15	-8
16	16	8

17	-17	-9
18	18	9

19	-19	-10
20	20	10


n is the term in the series.
An is the nth term in the series.
Sn is the sum of the n terms in the series.

if you look at the series, you will see that the sum of n terms, where n is even, is equal to exactly one half of the nth term.

the sum of 16 terms is 8
the sum of 18 terms is 9
the sum of 20 terms is 10

if you look at the sum of the odd terms, you will see that the sum of the n terms, where n is odd, is equal to the negative of the sum of the n+1 terms.

the sum of 15 terms is -8
the sum of 17 terms is -9
the sum of 19 terms is -10

you can extrapolate from this to get the sum of 2013 terms as follows.

the sum of 2014 terms is 1007
therefore the sum of 2013 terms is -1007.

that should be your answer.

i confirmed using excel that this is the case so i'm reasonably confident this is the answer you are looking for unless i completely misinterpreted the problem.


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