Quadratic sequence

But before we start I’m going to just quickly give you a summary of what we know at this stage.

In this stage in grade 11 we have learned:

 That we have a first difference that’s constant

 We call second difference that is constant

And we would work out the formula to generate the terms:

𝑇𝑛 = 𝑎𝑛2 + 𝑏𝑛 + 𝑐

I want you to stop for few minutes and quickly recap what we know and then we can go and have a look at an
example or two from last year just to refresh your memories.

There are many ways of dealing with this in fact we are going to end up doing this because its proper name is
an arithmetic sequence

𝑇𝑛 = 𝑎 + (𝑛 − 1)𝑑

And the proper name for this one is a quadratic sequence.

𝑇𝑛 = 𝑎𝑛2 + 𝑏𝑛 + 𝑐

Now I’m going to stop for two seconds just to show something that is very interesting.

If we take this :

First term – term1 and we replace every n with 1

𝑇1 = 𝑎(1)2 + 𝑏(1) + 𝑐

We going to get that a 1 squared plus b times 1 plus c that which then is going to give me a plus b plus c.

𝑻𝟏 = 𝒂 + 𝒃 + 𝒄

If I go and work out 2nd term - well that means go along and wherever there’s an input a 2 and if I do that I’m
going to get this looking at me and of course I would get 4a plus 2b plus c.

𝑻𝟐 = 𝒂(𝟐)𝟐 + 𝒃(𝟐) + 𝒄 = 𝟒𝒂 + 𝟐𝒃 + 𝒄

Let’s work out two more terms and then I’m going to show you something that’s very useful for when working
with the particular terms so it’s a 3 squared plus b times 3 plus and we tidy that up we’re going to get 9a plus 3
b plus c ,
𝑻𝟑 = 𝒂(𝟑)𝟐 + 𝒃(𝟑) + 𝒄 = 𝟗𝒂 + 𝟑𝒃 + 𝒄

And one more term

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Term 4 is going to be a 4 squared plus b times 4 plus c while gives me 16 a plus 4 b plus c.

𝑻𝟒 = 𝒂(𝟒)𝟐 + 𝒃(𝟒) + 𝒄 = 𝟏𝟔𝒂 + 𝟒𝒃 + 𝒄

Well that’s quite interesting because now whatever I got I’ve got a plus b plus c been my term 1; 4a plus 2b
plus c been my term 2 ; 9a plus 3b plus c been my term 3 and 16a plus 4b plus c been my term 4.

So right what do we do normally we would look at this and we’d say let’s get one first difference.

Well If I’m moving from T1 to T2 I’m adding 3a plus b on likewise if I’m going from this term(T2 ) to this Term
(T3) I’m adding 5 a plus b and if I’m going from this term(T3 ) to this Term (T4) I’m adding 7 a plus b .

We can see that First difference is not constant.

Now if it’s not constant we need to go further so let’s see what happens on the second difference so just to
recap that our first difference and we see it’s not constant not the same and therefore we need to look at the
second difference

so doing the second difference from 3a to 5 a it’s 2 a b is already there and from 5 to 7 is another 2 a and yes
we see that the second difference is constant .

What I’m trying to do is show you a really way of solving any of your quadratic equations

Now what you need to remember from what I’ve to show you is the following you need to remmeber tht if I
know

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 1. the second difference it will always equal 𝟐𝐚.
2. And the first of the first differences equals 𝟑𝐚 + 𝐛
3. And the first term is 𝒂 + 𝒃 + 𝒄.

Now knowing few little formulas can make all the difference to you doing the first of the questions so let’s go
across to he first of my questions.

1. The first four terms od a sequence are : 1; 10; 25; 46; …

a. Write down the next two terms (2)
b. Determine the formula Tn for the sequence. (5)

So let’ have a look

We’ve got
𝟒𝟔 + 𝟐𝟕 = 𝟕𝟑 𝟕𝟑 + 𝟑𝟑 = 𝟏𝟎𝟔
1; 10; 25; 46;

1st diff 10 − 1 = 9 25 − 10 = 15 46 − 25 = 21 21 + 6 = 27 27 + 6 = 33

2nd diff 15 − 9 = 6 21 − 15 = 6 6 6

Now knowing that 2nd diff = 6 that means next one also go of 6 so this would be 27 which means if I add 27
to 46 I get next term so 27 plus 46 is 73 (3 carry 1) and now I know that to get the next one increased by 6 so
this is going to be 33 and aain 73+33 is 106.

There is my next two terms : 73 and 106.

Quite simple.

b.

And quite straight forward now what I’m going to do next is I’m going to work out the TN now what I’ve shown
you is a really nifty way to know that what did I say to you I said the second difference is 2a.

Step 1:
3
 6
2nd diff = 2𝑎 ∴ 2𝑎 = 6 ∴ 𝑎 = 2 ∴ 𝑎 = 3

Step 2:

First of first difference is 3a+b ∴ 𝟑𝒂 + 𝒃 = 𝟗 ∴ 𝟑(𝟑) + 𝒃 = 𝟗 ∴ 𝒃 = 𝟗 − 𝟗 = 𝟎

Step 3

First term is 𝒂 + 𝒃 + 𝒄 ∴ 𝒂 + 𝒃 + 𝒄 = 𝟏 ∴ 𝟑 + 𝟎 + 𝒄 = 𝟏 ∴ 𝒄 = 𝟏 − 𝟑 = −𝟐

𝑇1 𝑇2 𝑇3 𝑇4

𝑎+𝑏+𝑐; 4𝑎 + 2𝑏 + 𝑐; 9𝑎 + 3𝑏 + 𝑐; 16𝑎 + 4𝑏 + 𝑐

1st diff 3𝑎 + 𝑏 5𝑎 + 𝑏 7𝑎 + 𝑏

2nd diff 2a 2a

𝑎 = 3 ; 𝑏 = 0 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑐 = −2

And
𝑇𝑛 = 𝑎𝑛2 + 𝑏𝑛 + 𝑐

∴ 𝑇𝑛 = 3𝑛2 − 2

Prove: 𝑡1 = 1 ; 𝑡2 = 10 ; 𝑡6 = 106

𝑡1 = 3 × 12 − 2 = 3 − 2 = 1

𝑡2 = 3 × 22 − 2 = 12 − 2 = 10

𝑡6 = 3 × 62 − 2 = 3 × 36 − 2 = 108 − 2 = 106

Proved!