A local grocery store stacks the soup cans in such a way that each row has 2 fewer cans than the row below it. If there are 32 cans on the bottom row, How many cans are in the bottom 14 rows? You DO NOT have to solve need to know if it is a geometric series, geometric sequence, Arithmetic sequence, or arithmetic series. And i need to explain how to create an equation...

Question

anonymous · Answer

@Mesopretty

anonymous · Answer

Since it's asking for the TOTAL, it's a series (series means sum).  And since it's subtracting 2 every time, it's arithmetic (arithmetic means add or subtract).
So it's an arithmetic sequence.
The formula for arithmetic sequence is:
$$a _{n}=a _{1}+d(n-1)$$
where "a1" is the first term (number of cans in the first row) and "d" is the common difference (how many cans are added/subtracted each row)

anonymous · Answer

I think i may cry! seriously thank you so much! i truly appreciate it. you're such an amazing help!

anonymous · Answer

srry I was helping someone else