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NRICH topics: Patterns, sequences and structure Geometric sequences

Resources tagged with: Geometric sequences

Content type:
Age range:
Challenge level:

There are 28 NRICH Mathematical resources connected to Geometric sequences, you may find related items under Patterns, sequences and structure.

Broad Topics > Patterns, sequences and structure > Geometric sequences

Problem Primary curriculum Secondary curriculum

Pocket Money

Which of these pocket money systems would you rather have?

Age 11 to 14
Challenge Level Yellow star
Problem Primary curriculum Secondary curriculum

Double Trouble

Simple additions can lead to intriguing results...

Age 14 to 16
Challenge Level Yellow star
Problem Primary curriculum Secondary curriculum

Summing Geometric Progressions

Watch the video to see how to sum the sequence. Can you adapt the method to sum other sequences?

Age 14 to 18
Challenge Level Yellow star
Problem Primary curriculum Secondary curriculum

Tower of Hanoi

The Tower of Hanoi is an ancient mathematical challenge. Working on the building blocks may help you to explain the patterns you notice.

Age 11 to 14
Challenge Level Yellow starYellow star
Problem Primary curriculum Secondary curriculum

Clickety Click and All the Sixes

What is the sum of: 6 + 66 + 666 + 6666 ............+ 666666666...6 where there are n sixes in the last term?

Age 16 to 18
Challenge Level Yellow star
Problem Primary curriculum Secondary curriculum

Sixty-seven Squared

Evaluate these powers of 67. What do you notice? Can you convince someone what the answer would be to (a million sixes followed by a 7) squared?

Age 16 to 18
Challenge Level Yellow star
Problem Primary curriculum Secondary curriculum

Tiny Nines

What do you notice about these families of recurring decimals?

Age 14 to 16
Challenge Level Yellow starYellow star
Problem Primary curriculum Secondary curriculum

Circles Ad Infinitum

A circle is inscribed in an equilateral triangle. Smaller circles touch it and the sides of the triangle, the process continuing indefinitely. What is the sum of the areas of all the circles?

Age 16 to 18
Challenge Level Yellow starYellow star
Problem Primary curriculum Secondary curriculum

Converging Product

In the limit you get the sum of an infinite geometric series. What about an infinite product (1+x)(1+x^2)(1+x^4)... ?

Age 16 to 18
Challenge Level Yellow starYellow star
Problem Primary curriculum Secondary curriculum

The Amazing Splitting Plant

Can you work out how many flowers there will be on the Amazing Splitting Plant after it has been growing for six weeks?

Age 5 to 7
Challenge Level Yellow starYellow starYellow star
Problem Primary curriculum Secondary curriculum

Vanishing Point

How can visual patterns be used to prove sums of series?

Age 14 to 18
Challenge Level Yellow starYellow star
Problem Primary curriculum Secondary curriculum

Clickety Click

What is the sum of: 6 + 66 + 666 + 6666 ............+ 666666666...6 where there are n sixes in the last term?

Age 16 to 18
ShortChallenge Level Yellow star
Problem Primary curriculum Secondary curriculum

Geometric Parabola

Explore what happens when you draw graphs of quadratic equations with coefficients based on a geometric sequence.

Age 14 to 16
Challenge Level Yellow starYellow starYellow star
Problem Primary curriculum Secondary curriculum

Mobile Numbers

In this investigation, you are challenged to make mobile phone numbers which are easy to remember. What happens if you make a sequence adding 2 each time?

Age 5 to 11
Challenge Level Yellow star
Problem Primary curriculum Secondary curriculum

Production Equation

Each week a company produces X units and sells p per cent of its stock. How should the company plan its warehouse space?

Age 16 to 18
Challenge Level Yellow starYellow star
Problem Primary curriculum Secondary curriculum

Investigating Pascal's Triangle

In this investigation, we look at Pascal's Triangle in a slightly different way - rotated and with the top line of ones taken off.

Age 7 to 11
Challenge Level Yellow starYellow star
Problem Primary curriculum Secondary curriculum

Von Koch Curve

Make a poster using equilateral triangles with sides 27, 9, 3 and 1 units assembled as stage 3 of the Von Koch fractal. Investigate areas & lengths when you repeat a process infinitely often.

Age 16 to 18
Challenge Level Yellow starYellow starYellow star
Problem Primary curriculum Secondary curriculum

Sierpinski Triangle

What is the total area of the triangles remaining in the nth stage of constructing a Sierpinski Triangle? Work out the dimension of this fractal.

Age 16 to 18
Challenge Level Yellow starYellow star
Problem Primary curriculum Secondary curriculum

Golden Fibs

When is a Fibonacci sequence also a geometric sequence? When the ratio of successive terms is the golden ratio!

Age 16 to 18
Challenge Level Yellow starYellow star
Problem Primary curriculum Secondary curriculum

Generally Geometric

Generalise the sum of a GP by using derivatives to make the coefficients into powers of the natural numbers.

Age 16 to 18
Challenge Level Yellow starYellow star
Problem Primary curriculum Secondary curriculum

Smaller and Smaller

Can you predict, without drawing, what the perimeter of the next shape in this pattern will be if we continue drawing them in the same way?

Age 7 to 14
Challenge Level Yellow starYellow starYellow star
Problem Primary curriculum Secondary curriculum

Ruler

The interval 0 - 1 is marked into halves, quarters, eighths ... etc. Vertical lines are drawn at these points, heights depending on positions. What happens as this process goes on indefinitely?

Age 16 to 18
Challenge Level Yellow star
Problem Primary curriculum Secondary curriculum

Transformations Tables

These grids are filled according to some rules - can you complete them?

Age 7 to 11
Challenge Level Yellow star
Interactive Primary curriculum Secondary curriculum

Proof Sorter - Geometric Sequence

Can you correctly order the steps in the proof of the formula for the sum of the first n terms in a geometric sequence?

Age 16 to 18
Challenge Level Yellow star
Article Primary curriculum Secondary curriculum

Sum the Series

This article by Alex Goodwin, age 18 of Madras College, St Andrews describes how to find the sum of 1 + 22 + 333 + 4444 + ... to n terms.

Age 16 to 18
Problem Primary curriculum Secondary curriculum

Squaring the Circle and Circling the Square

If you continue the pattern, can you predict what each of the following areas will be? Try to explain your prediction.

Age 14 to 16
Challenge Level Yellow starYellow starYellow star
Problem Primary curriculum Secondary curriculum

Binary Squares

If a number N is expressed in binary by using only 'ones,' what can you say about its square (in binary)?

Age 16 to 18
Challenge Level Yellow starYellow star
Problem Primary curriculum Secondary curriculum

The Great Tiling Count

Compare the numbers of particular tiles in one or all of these three designs, inspired by the floor tiles of a church in Cambridge.

Age 7 to 11
Challenge Level Yellow star

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The NRICH Project aims to enrich the mathematical experiences of all learners. To support this aim, members of the NRICH team work in a wide range of capacities, including providing professional development for teachers wishing to embed rich mathematical tasks into everyday classroom practice.

NRICH is part of the family of activities in the Millennium Mathematics Project.

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