What is the next term in the pattern?
2, 6, 18, 54, 162,
HALP!!

Question

ivitt · Answer

Do I multiply by 3 or??

mathmale · Answer

Evaluate the following:  3*2, 3*6, 3*18, 3*54.  What next?

ivitt · Answer

3*162 3*486??

mathmale · Answer

Good.  What is your conclusion?

ivitt · Answer

Multiply by 3

mathmale · Answer

Need a bit more info than that.     Given the nth term of a sequence, how does one find the (n+1)st term?

$$a _{n+1}=3(a _{n})$$

mathmale · Answer

This says:  "Given the term a sub n of a certain arithmetic sequence, find the next term by multiplying a_sub_n by 3."

phi · Answer

yes, the next term is 3*162 = 486

when I do these problems I look for a "constant multiple"  (by dividing the second number by the number in front of it:   example 6/2 =3  then try 18/6 = 3
if that does not work, I look for a constant difference (which is not the case here)