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Linda a very perceptive young lady, noticed that the number of text messages she

received over the course of two months formed an arithmetic sequence. If she received
13 messages on day 3 and 64 messages on day 20:
a) How many messages did she receive on day 12?
b) How many messages did she receive on day 50?

1 Answer

3 votes

Final answer:

In an arithmetic sequence, with 13 messages received on day 3 and 64 on day 20, Linda received 40 messages on day 12 and will receive 154 messages on day 50. The first answer, option a is 40 messages, r option b is 154 messages.

Step-by-step explanation:

The question posed by the student involves an arithmetic sequence. Linda received 13 messages on day 3 and 64 messages on day 20.

To solve part a), we first need to find the common difference (d) of the arithmetic sequence. This can be calculated as follows:

  1. Number of terms between day 3 and day 20 is 20 - 3 = 17.
  2. Difference in the number of messages is 64 - 13 = 51.
  3. The common difference (d) is therefore 51 messages / 17 terms = 3 messages per day.

Now, we can find the number of messages on day 12 by:

  1. Calculating the number of terms from day 3 to day 12, which is 12 - 3 = 9.
  2. Adding 9 terms worth of the common difference to the message count on day 3: 13 + (9 * 3) = 13 + 27 = 40 messages.

To solve part b), calculate how many terms are between day 3 and day 50:

  1. Day 50 would be the 48th term from day 3 (50 - 3 = 47) since the sequence starts at day 1.
  2. Then multiply the common difference by 47 and add it to the message count on day 3: 13 + (47 * 3) = 13 + 141 = 154 messages.

Thus:

  • On day 12, Linda received 40 messages.
  • On day 50, Linda received 154 messages.

User Andre Knob
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