sparkle6 wrote:Can anyone provide me with the sequence formula for finding a particular term in a sequence?
I'm aware that the formula for the sum of a sequence is:
(number of terms) * (average of the first and last term)
I received a PM asking me to comment.
I don't really have much to add beyond Anurag's post, but here's my approach:
An arithmetic sequence is a set of evenly spaced integers.
To determine the value of a specific term in an arithmetic sequence, just ask yourself how many times the value of d -- the distance between successive terms -- must be added to the 1st term:
For the 2nd term, the value of d must be added to the 1st term 1 time.
For the 3rd term, the value of d must be added to the 1st term 2 times.
For the 100th term, the value of d must be added to the 1st term 99 times.
In other words, for the nth term, the value of d must be added to the 1st term n-1 times.
Put into a formula:
The nth term = the 1st term + (n-1)d.
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