The 3rd and 7th terms of an arithmetic progression are 10 and 26 respectively. Find the first term.
A4CORRECT
B2
C6
D8
GCEFurther MathematicsSequences and Series2024
AI
Toaster Teacher
Why the answer is A, and why the others tempt you.
Let the first term be a and common difference d. Then a + 2d = 10 and a + 6d = 26. Subtracting gives 4d = 16, so d = 4. Substituting back: a + 8 = 10, so a = 2. Wait — a = 2. The correct answer is B.
Want this in Pidgin, Yoruba, Igbo or Hausa? Sign up free →
Practice more Further Mathematics questions
GCE Further Mathematics has thousands more questions like this — with Worked answers on every one.