Precalculus Examples

$0$ , $3$ , $8$ , $15$ , $24$

Step 1

Find the first level differences by finding the differences between consecutive terms.

$3, 5, 7, 9$

Step 2

Find the second level difference by finding the differences between the first level differences. Because the second level difference is constant, the sequence is quadratic and given by $a_{n} = a n^{2} + b n + c$ .

$2$

Step 3

Solve for $a$ by setting $2 a$ equal to the constant second level difference $2$ .

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Step 3.1

Set $2 a$ equal to the constant second level difference $2$ .

$2 a = 2$

Step 3.2

Divide each term in $2 a = 2$ by $2$ and simplify.

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Step 3.2.1

Divide each term in $2 a = 2$ by $2$ .

$\frac{2 a}{2} = \frac{2}{2}$

Step 3.2.2

Simplify the left side.

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Step 3.2.2.1

Cancel the common factor of $2$ .

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Step 3.2.2.1.1

Cancel the common factor.

$\frac{2 a}{2} = \frac{2}{2}$

Step 3.2.2.1.2

Divide $a$ by $1$ .

$a = \frac{2}{2}$

Step 3.2.3

Simplify the right side.

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Step 3.2.3.1

Divide $2$ by $2$ .

$a = 1$

Step 4

Solve for $b$ by setting $3 a + b$ equal to the first first level difference $3$ .

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Step 4.1

Set $3 a + b$ equal to the first first level difference $3$ .

$3 a + b = 3$

Step 4.2

Substitute $1$ for $a$ .

$3 \cdot 1 + b = 3$

Step 4.3

Multiply $3$ by $1$ .

$3 + b = 3$

Step 4.4

Move all terms not containing $b$ to the right side of the equation.

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Step 4.4.1

Subtract $3$ from both sides of the equation.

$b = 3 - 3$

Step 4.4.2

Subtract $3$ from $3$ .

$b = 0$

Step 5

Solve for $c$ by setting $a + b + c$ equal to the first term in the sequence $0$ .

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Step 5.1

Set $a + b + c$ equal to the first term in the sequence $0$ .

$a + b + c = 0$

Step 5.2

Substitute $1$ for $a$ and $0$ for $b$ .

$1 + 0 + c = 0$

Step 5.3

Add $1$ and $0$ .

$1 + c = 0$

Step 5.4

Subtract $1$ from both sides of the equation.

$c = - 1$

Step 6

Substitute the values of $a$ , $b$ , and $c$ into the quadratic sequence formula $a_{n} = a n^{2} + b n + c$ .

$a_{n} = 1 n^{2} + 0 n - 1$

Step 7

Simplify.

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Step 7.1

Simplify each term.

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Step 7.1.1

Multiply $n^{2}$ by $1$ .

$a_{n} = n^{2} + 0 n - 1$

Step 7.1.2

Multiply $0$ by $n$ .

$a_{n} = n^{2} + 0 - 1$

Step 7.2

Add $n^{2}$ and $0$ .

$a_{n} = n^{2} - 1$

Step 8

Substitute in the value of $n$ to find the $n$ th term.

$a_{6} = {(6)}^{2} - 1$

Step 9

Raise $6$ to the power of $2$ .

$a_{6} = 36 - 1$

Step 10

Subtract $1$ from $36$ .

$a_{6} = 35$