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Saturday, May 9, 2015

Common terms of two A.P Series : Indian Statistical Institute B.Math & B.Stat

Indian Statistical Institute B.Math & B.Stat Consider the two arithmetic progressions 3,7,11,,407 and 2,9,16,,709. Find the number of common terms of these two progressions. Let an and am be the last terms of the progressions respectively 407=3+(n1)4 and 709=2+(m1)7 Solving we get, n,m=102. To find the common terms, assume that the nth term of the first progression is equal to the mth term of the second progression. 3+(n1)4=2+(m1)73+4n42+7=7m4(n+1)=7m, where n,m{1,2,3,,102} R.H.S is a multiple of 7, while L.H.S is 4(n+1). Since g.c.d(4,7)=1 L.H.S will be multiple of 7, iff n+1 is a multiple of 7. n=6,13,20, Again since n is bounded by 102. The largest possible value of n is 97. So, n \in \{6,13,20,\dots\,97} Which has 14 terms. Thus the number of common terms of the progression is 14

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