Question

In an arithmetic sequence, the first term is 5 and the fourth term is 40. Find the second term.

Answer 1

The equation for finding the nth term of an arithmetic sequence is,
an = a1 + (n - 1) x d
where a1 is the first term and d is the common ratio. Using the given term,
40 = 5 + (4 - 1) x d
The value of d is 11.67. For the second term,
a2 = 5 + (2 - 1) x 11.67 = 16.67
Thus, the second term is 16.67.