Week One Assignment

Assignment Week One

Victoria P. Gonzalez

MAT 126: Survey Of Mathematical Methods

(GSO1246D)

Instructor: Esmaail Nikjeh

November 20, 2012

Assignment week one.

There are many different ways that we could solve mathematical equations.  For instance, we could add, multiply, divide or subtract in order to find the product of any equation.  In the following paper, we will explore and explain different equations and the procedures that allow us to find the answers.  We will also explore the kind of sequence they follow by introducing two common sequences: geometric and arithmetic sequences.

The first problem that we would look at is exercise 35 from our book "Mathematics in Our World" by Bluman.

A person hired a firm to build a CB radio tower.  The firm charges $100 for labor for the first 10 feet.  After that, the cost of the labor for each is succeeding 10 feet.  After that, the cost of the labor for each succeeding 10 feet is $25 more than the preceding 10 feet.  That is, the next 10 feet will cost $125, the next 10 feet will cost $150, ect.  How much will it cost to build a 90-foot tower?

Here is how we will look at the problem:  

We can see that there is a new price after every 10 feet for labor.  Each new price is increased by $25.  The repeated addition needed to solve the problem tells us that this is arithmetic sequence.  First, we need to identify the following numbers:

n = the number of terms altogether                       n = 9

d = the common difference                                    d = 25

a1 = the first term                                                   a1 = 100

an = the last term                                                    an = a9  (yet to be computed)

Next, we would calculate what a9 is.  I n order to do so we will use the following the formula found in Mathematics in Our World.

an = a1 + d                                            

10 feet $100

20 feet $125

30 feet...