Question

generalize the pattern by finding the nth term beggining with n=1 16,8,4,2

Answer 1

you have a geometric series here

if first term =a and common ratio= r, the nth term = a r^(n-1)

Answer 2

her the common ration = second term / first term = 8 / 16 = 0.5

Answer 3

note of course that 4/8 and 2/4 = 0.5 also

Answer 4

each term is half of the previous one

Answer 5

so next 3 terms are 1, 0.5 ,0.25

Answer 6

if you wanted to find say the 50th term you could keep on dividing by 2 bur it would be easier to use the formula and your calculator:

50th term = 16* (0.5)^(50-1) = 2.842170943 * 10^-14

Answer 7

so the formula is

nth term = a r (n-1)

where a = 16 and r = 0.5

that is;

nth term = 16 * (0.5)^(n-1)