Given a sequence with its sum of the first terms satisfying the condition , where .
(1) Prove that the sequence forms a geometric sequence;
(2) Let another sequence satisfy . If , find the sum of the first terms of the sequence .
Solution
(1) According to the problem, we have Therefore, we can simplify this to obtain which leads to This indicates that for , the ratio is constant and equal to 3. This is the common ratio of the geometric sequence.
Moreover, for the first term, Solving for yields . Since we have a common ratio and a first term, the sequence forms a geometric sequence.
(2) Since we determined that the sequence is geometric with a common ratio of 3 and first term , we can write . Then, can be expressed as which means that Let's denote the sum of the first terms of the sequence by . Consider Multiplying the entire sum by 3, we get Subtracting these two equations, we obtain Simplifying further, we have Thus, the sum of the first terms of is
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