OCR C2 2005 January — Question 2 7 marks

Exam BoardOCR
ModuleC2 (Core Mathematics 2)
Year2005
SessionJanuary
Marks7
PaperDownload PDF ↗
Mark schemeDownload PDF ↗
TopicArithmetic Sequences and Series
TypePeriodic or repeating sequence
DifficultyModerate -0.3 This is a straightforward recursive sequence question requiring simple substitution to find the pattern (part i), then recognizing the period-3 cycle to deduce u_200 (part ii). While it requires pattern recognition beyond pure recall, the calculations are trivial and the cyclic nature becomes obvious after computing just 3-4 terms, making this slightly easier than a typical A-level question.
Spec1.04e Sequences: nth term and recurrence relations

2 A sequence \(u _ { 1 } , u _ { 2 } , u _ { 3 } , \ldots\) is defined by $$u _ { 1 } = 2 \quad \text { and } \quad u _ { n + 1 } = \frac { 1 } { 1 - u _ { n } } \text { for } n \geqslant 1 .$$
  1. Write down the values of \(u _ { 2 } , u _ { 3 } , u _ { 4 }\) and \(u _ { 5 }\).
  2. Deduce the value of \(u _ { 200 }\), showing your reasoning.

2 A sequence $u _ { 1 } , u _ { 2 } , u _ { 3 } , \ldots$ is defined by

$$u _ { 1 } = 2 \quad \text { and } \quad u _ { n + 1 } = \frac { 1 } { 1 - u _ { n } } \text { for } n \geqslant 1 .$$

(i) Write down the values of $u _ { 2 } , u _ { 3 } , u _ { 4 }$ and $u _ { 5 }$.\\
(ii) Deduce the value of $u _ { 200 }$, showing your reasoning.

\hfill \mbox{\textit{OCR C2 2005 Q2 [7]}}