The chairs in the auditorium illustrates an arithmetic sequence
From the question, we have the following sequence:
Seats: 18, 26, 34
Rewrite as:
26 = 18 + 8
34 = 26 + 8
The above means that:
The number of seats on a row is 8 added to the the number of seats on the previous row.
Hence, the recursive rule is:
an = an-1 + 8; a1 = 26
In (a), we have:
a1 = 26 and d = 8
The explicit rule is calculated using:
an = a1 + (n -1) * d
This gives
an = 26 + (n - 1) * 8
Expand
an = 26 - 8 + 8n
Evaluate the difference
an = 18 + 8n
Hence, the explicit rule is:
an = 18 + 8n
This means that n = 7.
So, we have:
a7 = 18 + 8 * 7 = 74
Hence, there are 74 seats in the 7th row
We have the maximum number of rows to be 12.
So, the sigma notation would be:
[tex]\sum\limits^{12}_{n=1} {18 + 8n}[/tex]
The total number of seats is:
Sn = n/2(2a + (n -1) * d)
This gives
S12 = 12/2(2 * 26 + (12 -1) * 8)
S12 = 840
Hence, 840 chairs can fit the auditorium
Read more about arithmetic sequence at:
https://brainly.com/question/6561461