An arithmetic sequence problem involves distributing oranges among boys. The oldest boy gets 7 oranges, and subsequent boys get fewer oranges based on a constant difference. Determine the total number

This problem describes an arithmetic sequence where the number of oranges received by each boy decreases by a constant amount.

Let $N$ be the number of boys.
Let $a_1$ be the number of oranges the oldest boy receives.
Let $d$ be the constant difference in the number of oranges. Since each boy receives a constant number of oranges more than the next student (implying the sequence is decreasing from oldest to youngest), the common difference of the sequence $a_1, a_2, \dots, a_N$ will be $-d$, where $d$ is a positive integer.

• Step 1: Set up the given information. The oldest boy receives 7 oranges, so the first term is $a_