2.

1 Geometric Progressions

For Fred Greenleaf’s QR

Textbook
Compiled by Sam Marateck © 2009

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 Examples of geometric progressions

• A geometric progression is a sequence of

numbers in which a given number is a constant
ratio, let’s say a, times the previous number.
Examples:
• 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, i.e., An = aAn-1, A0 = 1, a =2
• 80, 40, 20, 10, 5, 2.5, i.e., A0 = 80, a = 1/2

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Given: a population increases by 5% each
year. Assume that A0 =20, i.e., the
population at year zero is 20. Then at year
one,
A1 =(1+0.05)20 or 1.05*20 or 21, at year two
A2 =(1+0.05)21 or (1+0.5)220 or 22.05,
A3 = (1+0.05)320 or 23.15
If r is the rate of growth, what is the general
formula for growth?

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In general, An = (1 + r)nA0

For our preceding population growth problem,

what is the value of n when An = 2A0 , i.e.,
what is the doubling time?
In our population growth problem, since A0 =20, we
set A to 2*20 or 40 and we solve the
problem 40 = 1.05n 20 or 2 = 1.05n for n. The
easiest way to do this is to use logarithms.

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In y = 103, we say that 3 is the logarithm and
10 is the base, or the logarithm of y to the
base 10 is 3. We write this as log10 y = 3.
Let’s multiply two numbers with the same
base but different exponents (logarithms), e.g.,
anam. The result is an+m, i.e., we add the
exponents

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The use of this book is quite large, my dear friend,
No matter how modest it looks,
You study it carefully and find that it gives
As much as a thousand big books.

John Napier, Baron Merchiston (1550-1617)

inventor of logarithms on his book,

Mirifici Logarithmorum Canonis Descriptio

(Description of the wonderful law of logarithms)

and popularizer of the use of the decimal point.

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Napier used as the base of his logarithms
1- 10-7 . Henry Briggs (1561 – 1631), a
British mathematician, proposed to Napier
making the base 10. Thus log of 1 would be
0. The tables we use today are based on
Brigg’s generation of a log table.

Let’s review logarithms

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When we divide two numbers with the same
base but different exponents e.g.,
an / am, the result is an-m, i.e., we subtract the
exponent in the denominator from the one in the
numerator. So if x = 105 and y = 103, then
xy = 108. So log10 (xy) = log10 (x) + log10(y).
Similarly x/y = 105-3 or 102. So log10(x/y) =
log(x) – log(y).

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If we multiply the same number x by itself
many times and assign it to y, y= xxxx.. then
log(y) = log(x)+ log(x)+ log(x)+ log(x)+…
So log(xn) = n log(x).

Look at y = 103. Take the log of both sides

log10 y = log10(103) = 3 log10(10). But log10(10) = 1 since 10=101.
So we get log10 y = 3 which conforms with the definition.

Let’s now solve

2 = 1.05n
for n. Take the log of both sides:
log(2) = log(1.05n ) = n log(1.05)

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We solve log(2) = n log(1.05) for n.
n = log(2)/log(1.05) . From the log table we
See that log(2) is 0.301 and log(1.05) is
0.0211. Thus the doubling time, n, is 14.3
years.

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If we represent the doubling time by T,then
our equation for An = (1 + r)nA0 for any time
t becomes
At =2(t/T)A0

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 Radioactivity
The time T at which half of a radioactive
substance decays is called the half-life of
the substance.
• At time T, ½ of the substance remains.
• At time 2T, ¼ of the substance remains.
• At time 3T, 1/8 of the substance remains.
• At time nT, (½)n of the substance remains.

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In general, in t years, the amount remaining
of the original substance A0 is
A(t) = A0(½)t/T.

Note that t is a multiple of T, the half-life

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 A problem involving U 238

The half-life of U238 is 4.51 x 109 years. How

much U238 was there when the solar system
first formed? The age of the solar system is
4.55 x 109 years.

We know that A(t) = A0(1/2)t/T, so

A(t)/A0 = (1/2)4.55x 10^9/4.51x10^9 =(1/2) 1.008

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Let A(t)/A0 = (1/2)1.008 = .497 so A0 is about
twice as much as there is now.

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The meltdown at Chernobyl Russia in 1986
released radio-active iodine into the atmos-
phere. It contaminated many square kilo-
meters. The original contamination was
5 x 10-6 grams per meter2. A safe level is
1 X 10-9 grams per meter2 . The half-life of
radio-active (131I) is 8.05 days.
The thyroid absorbs iodine and if it absorbs
radio-active iodine, cancer may develop.
After how many days after the meltdown, were the levels
safe?
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We use the formula A(t) = A0(1/2)t/T where
T is 8.05 days, A0 is 5 x 10-6 grms/m2 and
A(t) is 1 x 10-9 grams/m2. Lets call
A0 = 5000 x 10-9 . Since the levels use one signif-
Icant digit, let’s make 8.05 the digit 8.
We must solve:

1 x 10-9 = (½)t/8 5000 x 10-9

for t.
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In 1 x 10-9 = (½)t/8 5000 x 10-9 ,we cancel
the 10-9 on both sides. So we have to solve
1 = (½)t/8 5000 for t. Divide both sides by
5000, getting 1/ 5000 = (½)t/8 . So
1/5 x 10-3 = (½)t/8 . Lets take the log of
both sides: log(1/5 x 10-3 ) = log( (½)t/8 )
But log(xn) = n log(x); our equation

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log(1/5 x 10-3 ) = log( (½)t/8 ) becomes
log(1/5 x 10-3 ) = t/8 log( (½) ). Since
1/5 is 5-1 and ½ is 2-1 our equation becomes
log(5-1 x 10-3) = t/8 log(2-1). Since
log(AB) = log(A) + log(B), we get
log(5-1 ) + log(10-3) = t/8 log(2-1). Using
log(An) = nlog(A), we get:
-log(5) - 3log(10) = - t/8 log(2).
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We know that log10(10) = 1, since 10=101 ,
so -log(5) - 3log(10) = - t/8 log(2) is
-log(5) - 3 = - t/8 log(2). Multiplying by
-1 we get: log(5) + 3 = (t/ 8) log(2). Then
t =8 (log(5) + 3 )/ log(2). So t =98.3 days.

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 2.2 Compound Interest
Compound interest is an example of a geo-
metric progression. Let’s say a bank gives
10% interest annually. What will the balance
be after 4 years for an initial balance of
$100?

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• After one year, A = (1+0.1)100=$110
• After two years, A =(1.1)2 100 or $111
• After three years,A= (1.1)3 100 or $122
• After t years, A= (1.1)t 100
• In general, A= (1+r)t P where P is the
• original balance and r is the interest rate.

What if the interest is compounded quart-

erly?
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• After the 1st quarter, A=(1+0.025)100= $102
• After the 2nd quarter, A=(1+0.025)2100 = $105
• After the 3rd quarter, A =(1+0.025)3100= $107.68
• After the 4th quarter, A =(1+0.025)4100= $110.38
This is $0.38 greater than the non-compounded
case.
For t years, we get, A =(1+0.025)4t100.
What if the interest is compounded n times
a year?

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we get A =(1+r/n)ntP.

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What is the principal for $24 compounded
annually since 1626 for an interest rate of
4%. Now 2009-1626 = 383 years. So
A =1.04 383 24 = $80,164,150.21
What is the answer if the interest is
compounded
quarterly?

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The answer: 1.01383*4 24 =$100,128,077.29

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What happens if r is 100% and you com-
pound every second for 1 year? There are
31536000 seconds in a year. So
A =(1 +1/ 31536000) 31536000 =
2.7182817784689974.

It can be shown in calculus that

lim n→ ∞ (1+1/n)n = a constant called e, where e
is 2.71828…

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If we compound continuously, the principal
after t years at rate r is:

A = Pert

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In order to facilitate calculations with P=Aert,
we introduce loge, i.e., a logarithm to the
base e. We refer to this as ln. It has the
same properties as log10. So:
• ln(AB) = ln(A) + ln(B)
• ln(A/B) = ln(A) – ln(B)
• ln(An) = nln(A)

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At what annual interest rate, r, would your
money double in twenty years?

We use A = Pert where A= 2P and t = 10.

2 = e20r

ln(2) = ln(e20r)

ln(2) = 20r lne(e)

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 ln(2) = 20r lne(e)

But lne(e) = 1 so

20r = ln(2)

r = ln(2) /20

So r = .6931/20 = 0.035 or 3.5%

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There is a fast way of solving doubling time
problems for continuous growth problems.
We have 2 = e20r. Solving for r we get
ln(2) = 20r. Now ln(2) = .69 so

.69 = 20r.

If we express r in %, e.g., .05 becomes 5%. This

means we should multiply both sides by 100
getting 69 = 20 r (expressed in %). Solving for r we get
r = 3.5%

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The initial amount of 60Co (cobalt 60) is
57.30 gms. After 6 months 53.64 remain.
What is 60Co half-life?

We use Nt = N0(1/2)t/T

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Using Nt = N0(1/2)t/T and setting
R=53.64/57.30 we have log(R) = (6/T)log(.5)

So 6/T = log(R)/log(0.5) or
6/[log(R)/log(0.5)] = T or
T = 63 months or 63/12 years.
T = 5.25 years

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Spectrum of Electromagnetic Radiation
Region Wavlen Wavlen Freq Energy
(Angstr) (cm) (Hz) (ev)
Radio >109 >10 <3x109 <10-5
Microwave 109 – 106 10 - 0.01 3x109-3x1012 10-5-0.01
Infrared 106 – 7000 0.01 - 7x10-5 3x1012-4.3x1014 0.01–2
Visible 7000 – 4000 7x10-5-4x10-5 4.3x1014-7.5x1014 2 – 3
Ultraviol 4000 – 10 4x10-5- 10-7 7.5x1014-3x1017 3 – 103
X-Rays 10 - 0.1 10-7 - 10-9 3x1017- 3x1019 103 – 105
Gamma < 0.1 < 10-9 > 3x1019 > 105

1 Angstrom = 10-8 cm
From University of Tennessee Knoxville, Astronomy 161
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