Cambridge Senior General Mathematics AC/VCE Units 1 & 2

Online Teaching Suite Chapter 8 Number patterns and recursion: Chapter test 1

Student name:

Multiple-choice questions
1 In the sequence 6, 13, 20, 27, … the value of the common difference, d, is:
A –21
B –7
C 7
D 21
E 34

2 The thirteenth term, t13, in the sequence 63, 56, 49, 42, … is:
A –21
B 7
C 13
D 35
E 147

3 Using the recurrence relation t1 = 8, tn+1 = tn + 9, the sixth term would be:
A 15
B 17
C 23
D 53
E 62

4 A canoe costs $40 to hire for the first day and $30 for each extra day.
If Cn is the cost of hiring the canoe for n days, the recurrence relation is:
A C0 = 40, Cn+1 = Cn + 30
B C1 = 40, Cn+1 = Cn + 30
C C0 = 40, Cn = Cn+1 + 30
D C1 = 30, Cn+1 = Cn + 40
E C0 = 30, Cn = Cn+1 + 30

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Cambridge Senior General Mathematics AC/VCE Units 1 & 2
Online Teaching Suite Chapter 8 Number patterns and recursion: Chapter test 1

5 The common ratio, r, of the sequence 54, 72, 96, 128, … is:
A –18
3
B 4

4
C 3

3
D 2

E 18

6 The recurrence relation for the sequence 9, 27, 81, … is:

A t1 = 9, tn+1 = 9tn
B t1 = 9, tn+1 = tn + 9
C t1 = 9, tn+1 = 3tn
D t1 = 9, tn+1 = tn + 18
E t1 = 9, tn+1 = tn + 3,

7 In the sequence of patterns below pattern 1 used six sticks.

Pattern 1 Pattern 2 Pattern 3

The number of sticks required to make Pattern 100 would be:

A 402
B 406
C 598
D 600
E 604

8 A 7% increase is made by using a common ratio of:

A 0.07
B 1.07
C 1.7
D 7
E 107

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Cambridge Senior General Mathematics AC/VCE Units 1 & 2
Online Teaching Suite Chapter 8 Number patterns and recursion: Chapter test 1

9 A colony of frogs increases by 20% each year. If there were originally 500 frogs in the
colony, the recurrence relation for the number of frogs Fn after n years is:
A F1 = 500, Fn+1 = 1.20Fn
B F1 = 500, Fn+1 = 0.20Fn
C F0 = 500, Fn+1 = 0.20Fn
D F0 = 500, Fn+1 = 1.20Fn
E F1 = 500, Fn = 1.20Fn+1

10 The following recurrence relation can be used to model a compound interest investment
of $2000, paying interest at the rate of 9% per annum.
V0 = 2000, Vn+1 = 1.09Vn
After how many years will the value of the investment first exceed $5000?
A 10
B 11
C 12
D 15
E 17

11 In a Fibonacci type sequence t4 = 19 and t5 = 31. The value for t7 is:

A 13
B 43
C 50
D 59
E 81

12 The first three terms in a sequence using the recurrence relation t1 = 3, tn+1 = 2tn – 5, are:
A –3, –1, 1, …
B 1, –3, –11, …
C 2, –5, 3, …
D 3, 1, –3, …
E 3, 2, –5, …

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Cambridge Senior General Mathematics AC/VCE Units 1 & 2
Online Teaching Suite Chapter 8 Number patterns and recursion: Chapter test 1

Extended-response questions

1 Steven accepted a job with a salary of $60 000 in the first year and an increase of $7000
each following year.
a Show his salary for each of the first 10 years in a table.
b Would the points on a graph of the table of values be a straight line or a curve?
Give an explanation to support your answer.
Kathy accepted a job which paid $55 000 in the first year and increased by 11% in each
following year.
c Show her salary for each of the first 10 years in a table.
d Would the points on a graph of the table of values be a straight line or a curve?
Give an explanation to support your answer.

2 An oil well started producing 2000 barrels of oil per day. The rate at which oil
production reduces each day is called the decline rate and is used to predict the
productive life of the oil well.
a Output for the first three days was recorded as:
2000, 1980, 1960.2
The decline rate is the percentage that production is reducing by each day. Calculate the
decline rate for this oil well.
b State the recurrence relation for the oil production Pn on the nth day of production.
c What is the expected production for the well on the tenth day of operation?
d How many days of production will be possible before the daily output falls below
1700 barrels?

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Cambridge Senior General Mathematics AC/VCE Units 1 & 2
Online Teaching Suite Chapter 8 Number patterns and recursion: Chapter test 1

Chapter 8 test 1 answers

Multiple-choice questions

1 C
2 A
3 D
4 B
5 C
6 C
7 A
8 B
9 D
10 B
11 A
12 D

Extended-response questions

1 a

Year 1 2 3 4 5
Salary $60 000 $67 000 $74 000 $81 000 $88 000

Year 6 7 8 9 10
Salary $95 000 $102 000 $109 000 $116 000 $123 000

b A straight line. An arithmetic sequence produces a linear graph because the values
increase of decrease by a fixed amount. In this case the values increase by $7000.
c

Year 1 2 3 4 5
Salary $55 000 $61 050 $67 765.50 $75 219.71 $83 493.87

Year 6 7 8 9 10
Salary $92 678.20 $102 872.80 $114 188.81 $126 749.58 $140 692.03

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Cambridge Senior General Mathematics AC/VCE Units 1 & 2
Online Teaching Suite Chapter 8 Number patterns and recursion: Chapter test 1

d The graph would be a curve because the values do not increase by a constant
amount.
2 a 1%
b P1 = 2000, Pn+1 = 0.99Pn
c 1827.03 barrels
d 17 days

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