Edexcel C12 2015 January — Question 8

Exam BoardEdexcel
ModuleC12 (Core Mathematics 1 & 2)
Year2015
SessionJanuary
TopicArithmetic Sequences and Series

  1. A sequence is defined by
$$\begin{aligned} u _ { 1 } & = k
u _ { n + 1 } & = 3 u _ { n } - 12 , \quad n \geqslant 1 \end{aligned}$$ where \(k\) is a constant.
  1. Write down fully simplified expressions for \(u _ { 2 } , u _ { 3 }\) and \(u _ { 4 }\) in terms of \(k\). Given that \(u _ { 4 } = 15\)
  2. find the value of \(k\),
  3. find \(\sum _ { i = 1 } ^ { 4 } u _ { i }\), giving an exact numerical answer.