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5 votes
Find the nth term of the sequence

2,8,18,32,50

User Thimma
by
6.0k points

1 Answer

4 votes

9514 1404 393

Answer:

an = 2n^2

Explanation:

First differences are ...

8 -2 = 6

18 -8 = 10

32 -18 = 14

50 -32 = 18

And second differences are constant at 4:

10 -6 = 14 -10 = 18 -14 = 4

This means the sequence can be described by a degree 2 polynomial. The coefficient of the n^2 term is half the second difference: 2. We find nothing else needs to be added to the squared term.

an = 2·n^2

User Tiago Almeida
by
5.2k points