Geometric Series

[Cooper]

I'm usually rather deft at these types of equations, but this last one is frustrating me. I'm sure that it's a small miss-step on my part, but I'd still like someone to show me the right way into it. My answers vary, and I've just jumped into an advanced math program I wasn't present in last year. Because of this, I'm not too comfortable with difficult factoring, and posting my answers wouldn't help anyone.
Thanks to all.

The sum of the first two terms of a geometric series is 12 and the sum of the first 3 terms is 62. Find the first 3 terms of the series.

 

[Deleted member 4993]

I'm usually rather deft at these types of equations, but this last one is frustrating me. I'm sure that it's a small miss-step on my part, but I'd still like someone to show me the right way into it. My answers vary, and I've just jumped into an advanced math program I wasn't present in last year. Because of this, I'm not too comfortable with difficult factoring, and posting my answers wouldn't help anyone.
Thanks to all.

The sum of the first two terms of a geometric series is 12 and the sum of the first 3 terms is 62. Find the first 3 terms of the series.

You can get the answer, almost, by inspection. (assuming integer solution - of course there is no reason for that assumption).