M14 Q3 - Why isn't 0 "a term"

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M14 Q3 - Why isn't 0 "a term" [#permalink]

15 Sep 2009, 00:48

A sequence is defined as follows:

An = n/n+1

How many of the first 100 terms of this sequence are less than 0.891?

A-7
B-8
C-9
D-10
E-12

I got this question wrong by considering and counting 0 as a term, yielding 0% as one of the terms below 0.891. I'm sure this is obvious to most, but how is one to know that 0 isnt a term when interpreting the question?

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Re: M14 Q3 - Why isn't 0 "a term" [#permalink]

13 Oct 2009, 05:59

dpgxxx wrote:

Can someone help here as to why "0" cannot be considered :?:

The question doesnt say anything about "n", to be considered as natural or whole number or integers..

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Re: M14 Q3 - Why isn't 0 "a term" [#permalink]

13 Oct 2009, 07:21

We should probably state that the first element of the sequence is \frac{1}{2}. However, I thought it goes without saying that the first element is found by plugging "1", the second one by plugging "2" and so on. There's no zero element of a sequence, it starts with the first element.
Anyone else thinks we should specify the first element of the sequence?
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Re: M14 Q3 - Why isn't 0 "a term" [#permalink]

13 Oct 2009, 07:38

u r right .. we always start a series with 1.. as also seen while calculating sum of first n nos etc

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Re: M14 Q3 - Why isn't 0 "a term" [#permalink]

13 Oct 2009, 10:26

chetan2u wrote:

u r right .. we always start a series with 1.. as also seen while calculating sum of first n nos etc

do we not consider the series here as sum of 1st n NATURAL numbers? wherein the first number is 1

whereas the above series doesnt mention anything specific

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Re: M14 Q3 - Why isn't 0 "a term" [#permalink]

13 Oct 2009, 10:32

dzyubam wrote:

really sorry but still not able to get it

...as per my understanding until and unless it is not mentioned specifically we can consider any number which fits the equation....that goes without saying that we can consider -ve number,fraction as well.

Kindly explain what is meant by zero element? is it meaning A0 is the zero element and cannot be considered?

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Re: M14 Q3 - Why isn't 0 "a term" [#permalink]

13 Oct 2009, 11:21

looks like the question is not fully correct, it misses one of the premises to specify a range for n.

first element will be the one where n has the least value as specified by the n's range of allowable values; for eg., if it was specified that n is an integer always greater than -5 then first element is -4/-3 = 4/3 (where n= -4)
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Re: M14 Q3 - Why isn't 0 "a term" [#permalink]

13 Oct 2009, 11:28

OK. So would adding the following to the question stem suffice:

"n is a positive integer"

?

If so, I'll add the statement to the stem. Thank you guys for your feedback!

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Re: M14 Q3 - Why isn't 0 "a term" [#permalink]

13 Oct 2009, 11:36

dzyubam wrote:

OK. So would adding the following to the question stem suffice:

"n is a positive integer"

?

If so, I'll add the statement to the stem. Thank you guys for your feedback!

that will definitely help in clearing my confusion :-D

thanks dzyubam

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Re: M14 Q3 - Why isn't 0 "a term" [#permalink]

15 Oct 2009, 02:00

This post received
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The question has been changed to this:

A sequence is defined as follows:
A_n = \frac{n}{n + 1}

If n is a positive integer, then how many of the first 100 terms of this sequence are less than 0.891?

(C) 2008 GMAT Club - m14#3

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Re: M14 Q3 - Why isn't 0 "a term" [#permalink]

29 Jan 2010, 07:19

It should be changed in the stem of the hardest questions as well
ie: Algebra I - Q3

Re: M14 Q3 - Why isn't 0 "a term" [#permalink] 29 Jan 2010, 07:19

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M14 Q3 - Why isn't 0 "a term"

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M14 Q3 - Why isn't 0 "a term"

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