2006 AIME II Problems/Problem 11

Problem

A sequence is defined as follows $a_1=a_2=a_3=1,$ and, for all positive integers $n, a_{n+3}=a_{n+2}+a_{n+1}+a_n.$ Given that $a_{28}=6090307, a_{29}=11201821,$ and $a_{30}=20603361,$ find the remainder when $\sum^{28}_{k=1} a_k$ is divided by 1000.

Solution

Define the sum as $s$ . Since $a_n\ = a_{n + 3} - a_{n + 2} - a_{n + 1}$ , the sum will be:

$s = (a_4 - a_3 - a_2) + (a_5 - a_4 - a_3) + \ldots (a_{30} - a_{29} - a_{28}) + a_{28}$

$s = (a_4+ a_5 \ldots a_{30}) - (a_3 + a_4 + \ldots a_{29}) - (a_2 + a_3 + \ldots a_{28}) + a_{28} + (a_1 - a_1)$

The first two groups telescope. The third resembles $s$ .

$s\ = a_1 - a_3 + a_{28} + a_{30} - s$

$2s\ = a_{28} + a_{30}$

$s\ = \frac{a_{28} + a_{30}}{2}$

$a_{28}$ and $a_{30}$ are both given; the last four digits of their sum is $3668$ , and half of that is $1834$ . Therefore, the answer is $834$ .

2006 AIME II (Problems • Answer Key • Resources)
Preceded by Problem 10	Followed by Problem 12
1 • 2 • 3 • 4 • 5 • 6 • 7 • 8 • 9 • 10 • 11 • 12 • 13 • 14 • 15
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2006 AIME II Problems/Problem 11

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