The third term of an A.P. is 7 and the seventh term exceeds three times the third term by 2. Find the first term, the common difference and the sum of first 20 terms.
In the given problem, let us take the first term as a and the common difference as d.
Here, we are given that,
$a_{3}=7$...........(1)
$a_{7}=3 a_{3}+21$.........(2)
So, using (1) in (2), we get,
$a_{7}=3(7)+2$
$=21+2$
$=23$...........(3)
Also, we know,
$a_{n}=a+(n-1) d$
For the $3^{\text {th }}$ term $(n=3)$,
$a_{3}=a+(3-1) d$
$7=a+2 d$(Using 1)
$a=7-2 d$......(4)
Similarly, for the $7^{\text {th }}$ term $(n=7)$,
$a_{7}=a+(7-1) d$
$24=a+6 d$ (Using 3)
$a=24-6 d$...............(5)
Subtracting (4) from (5), we get,
$a-a=(23-6 d)-(7-2 d)$
$0=23-6 d-7+2 d$
$0=16-4 d$
$4 d=16$
$d=4$
Now, to find a, we substitute the value of d in (4),
$a=7-2(4)$
$a=7-8$
$a=-1$
So, for the given A.P $d=4$ and $a=-1$
So, to find the sum of first 20 terms of this A.P., we use the following formula for the sum of n terms of an A.P.,
$S_{\pi}=\frac{n}{2}[2 a+(n-1) d]$
Where; a = first term for the given A.P.
d = common difference of the given A.P.
n = number of terms
So, using the formula for n = 20, we get,
$S_{20}=\frac{20}{2}[2(-1)+(20-1)(4)]$
$=(10)[-2+(19)(4)]$
$=(10)[-2+76]$
$=(10)[74]$
$=740$
Therefore, the sum of first 20 terms for the given A.P. is $S_{20}=740$.