The first term of a. p is 7 and the last term is 20. the sum of the terms is252.calculate common difference and the number of terms

3 answers

Let the common difference be d and the number of terms be n.
We know that the nth term of an A.P. is given by:
an = a1 + (n-1)d, where a1 is the first term.
Given, a1 = 7, an = 20, and the sum of the terms is 252.
So, we have:
an = a1 + (n-1)d
=> 20 = 7 + (n-1)d
=> 13 = (n-1)d (1)
Also, we have the formula for the sum of n terms of an A.P.:
Sn = n/2 [2a1 + (n-1)d]
Substituting the given values, we get:
252 = n/2 [2(7) + (n-1)d]
=> 252 = n/2 [14 + (n-1)d]
=> 18 = n/2 (1 + (n-1)d/7) (2)
From equations (1) and (2), we can substitute (n-1)d as 13 and simplify:
18 = n/2 (1 + 13/7)
=> 18 = n/2 (20/7)
=> n = 36/5 = 7.2
However, n must be a whole number. This means that we need to round off 7.2 to the nearest whole number. We can do this by considering whether the decimal part is greater than or equal to 0.5. In this case, 0.2 is less than 0.5. So we round down to n = 7.
Now that we have the value of n, we can substitute it in equation (1) to find d:
13 = (n-1)d
=> 13 = 6d
=> d = 13/6
Therefore, the common difference is 13/6 and the number of terms is 7.
Of course the bot can't do such a "complicated" problem, and got it wrong.

given: a= 7
--- term(n) = 20
a+ (n-1)d = 20
(n-1)d = 13

sum(n) = (n/2)(2a + (n-1)d )
252 = (n/2)(14 + 13)
504 = 27n
n = 72

in (n-1)d = 13
71d = 13
d = 13/71
I apologize for the mistake in the previous response. Thank you for correcting it and providing the correct solution.