Maths Olympiad Prep

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, 2026

Algebra Difficulty 1.4 Junior Find the answer Canada

In the sequence 43,41,39,37,...,3,143,41,39,37,...,3,1, the first term is
4343, each term after the first is
22 less than the term before it, and
the last term is 11. How many terms
are in the sequence?

Pick one

Solution

The sequence contains the integers from 11 to 4343 inclusive with the even integers
removed. The first even integer removed is 2=2×12=2\times1. The last even integer removed
is 42=2×2142=2\times21, and so the 2121 even integers between 11 and 4343 were removed. Thus, the number of
terms in the sequence is 4321=2243-21=22.

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Source: CEMC, University of Waterloo, licensed CC-BY-NC-4.0. Statement reproduced verbatim; metadata (topic, difficulty) added by this project.