It took Nasrin two hours and thirty minutes to canoe the 4.5 km
into her camp. Paddling much faster, the return trip took her of the time. What was
Nasrin’s mean (average) speed as she paddled to camp and back?
, 2023
Pick one
Solution
If a Gareth sequence begins 10, 8, then the 3rd number in the
sequence is , the 4th is
, the 5th is , the 6th is , the 7th is , the 8th is , the 9th is , the 10th is , and the 11th is .
Thus, the resulting sequence is .
The first 5 numbers in the sequence are , the next 3 numbers are , and this block of 3 numbers
appears to repeat.
Since each new number added to the end of this sequence is determined by
the two previous numbers in the sequence, then this block of 3 numbers
will indeed continue to repeat. (That is, since the block repeats once,
then it will continue repeating.)
The first 30 numbers of the sequence begins with the first 5 numbers,
followed by 8 blocks of ,
followed by one additional 2 (since ).
The sum of the first 5 numbers is .
The sum of each repeating block is , and so the sum of 8 such blocks
is .
Thus, the sum of the first 30 numbers in the sequence is .