Question

A monument is built out of toothpicks. There are 35 rows and each row has six more toothpicks than the row above. The top row has five toothpicks.

Part 1: How many toothpicks are on the bottom row?


Part 2: Using complete sentences, explain the procedure taken to answer this question.

Answer 1

Aren't you just asking for the 35th term of the sequence whose first term is 65 and whose common difference is 6?

Answer 2

\[a _{n}=a _{1}+(n-1)d\]

Answer 3

a=5
d=6
n=35

Answer 4

Can you plug in this time?

Answer 5

\[a _{35}=5+(35-1)d\]

Answer 6

5+34*6=5+204=209