Question

What is the common ratio in the following geometric sequence?

3, 12, 48, 192, ...

Answer 1

Divide any term by the term right before it.

Answer 2

Divide each number by the previous one.
What do you get?

Answer 3

What is 12/3 ?
What is 48/12 ?
That is the common ratio.
Once you are told a sequence is geometric, you only need to pick one pair of consecutive numbers and divide the second one by the first one to find the common ratio.

Answer 4

\(\large \begin{array}{lllllll}
&3, &12, &48, &192, &...\\
&&\uparrow&\uparrow&\uparrow\\
&&\frac{12}{3}?&\frac{48}{12}?&\frac{192}{48}?
\end{array}\)