Question

Hi!
Any advice for solving nth term of sequences?

Answer 1

it will depend on the type of sequence...

I'd recommend against guess and check... a bit time consuming

Answer 2

Do you play Nplay?

Answer 3

@campbell_st That's what my teacher was suggesting haha I was just wondering if there was a better way... i know the formulas for arithmetic and geometric sequences but other than that, its just finding a pattern??

Answer 4

@nathan917 sorry that;s not relevant to my question i have to focus on math lol

Answer 5

Was asking because ik a friend who has the same pic..

Answer 6

well it depends on what information you are given.... if you teacher is suggesting a geometric sequence.. then guess and check can work...

both can be solved using algebra...for example

in a geometric sequence

if you know the nth term, the 1st term and common ratio you can find the number of terms...

but for each method I'd need to know

nth term or sum of n terms

1st term

common ratio or common difference to attempt an algebraic solution...

Answer 7

like, this was given in my homework to find the nth term: 1, 1/2, 3, 1/4, 5, 1/6

Answer 8

well there are 2 patterns

1, 3, 5, ....

and 1/2, 1/4, 1/6

so so basically you for the even terms you are taking the reciprocal...

and the term number matches the position in the sequence..

1st term 1

2nd term 1/2

3rd term 3

4th term 1/4


so I think the pattern is something like

\[n^{{-1}^{n + 1}}\]

so if n = 1

\[1^{({-1})^{1 + 1}} = 1\]

n = 2

\[2^{{(-1)}^{2 + 1}} = 2^{-1} = \frac{1}{2}\]

perhaps this is close

Answer 9

oops for n = 1 it should read

\[1^{{-1}^{1 +1}} = 1^{{-1}^2} = 1^1 = 1\]

Answer 10

by raising -1 to an even power, you will get an positive power... raising it to a negative will result in a negative power...

Answer 11

hope this makes sense... and I can see why your teacher suggested guess and check.. it takes time to think about it..and understand the pattern.