2nd question:
"2. The mean of the first five terms of an arithmetic sequence is 27, and the mean of the first eight terms of the same sequence is 39. What is the absolute difference between the first and second terms of this sequence?" By the way, what do you mean by the absolute difference between the first & second terms of this sequence? so we subtract the first mean from the second mean? That's what I did.. or we subtract the first term from the second term?
I think:
Let the first 5 terms of the arithmetic sequence be: X , Y , Z , K, L
We know:
(X+Y+Z+K+L) /5 =27
"The mean of the first eight terms of the same sequence is 39" So I understood that it is the extention of the first mean
Let the new 3 terms be F,S,Q
(X+Y+Z+K+L)/5 + F+S+Q=39
we know that (X+Y+Z+K+L)/5=27
27+F+S+Q=39
F+S+Q=12
Ok so "Difference between the first and second terms of this sequence"
first is 27-12=15
Not so sure.. maybe I understood it wrong.