A sequence has terms a1,a2,a3,…. The first term is a1=x and the third term is a3=y. The terms of the sequence have the property that every term after the first term is equal to 1 less than the sum of the terms immediately before and after it. What is the sum of the first 2018 terms in the sequence?
A number or a short expression. Spacing and $ signs are ignored.
Solution
Substituting n=1 into the equation an+1=an+an+2−1 gives a2=a1+a3−1. Since a1=x and a3=y, then a2=x+y−1. Rearranging the given equation, we obtain an+2=an+1−an+1 for each n≥1. Thus, a4=a3−a2+1=y−(x+y−1)+1=2−x, a5=a4−a3+1=(2−x)−y+1=3−x−y, a6=a5−a4+1=(3−x−y)−(2−x)+1=2−y, a7=a6−a5+1=(2−y)−(3−x−y)+1=x, a8=a7−a6+1=x−(2−y)+1=x+y−1. Since a7=a1 and a8=a2 and each term in the sequence depends only on the previous two terms, then the sequence repeats each 6 terms. Now a1+a2+a3+a4+a5+a6=x+(x+y−1)+y+(2−x)+(3−x−y)+(2−y)=6 which means that the sum of each successive group of 6 terms is also equal to 6. We note that 2016=6⋅336 and so the 2016th term is the end of a group of 6 terms, which means that the sum of the first 2016 terms in the sequence is 6⋅336=2016. Finally, a2017=a1=x and a2018=a2=x+y−1. Thus, the sum of the first 2018 terms is 2016+x+(x+y−1)=2x+y+2015.
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