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Identify if the sequence is arithmetic or geometric. Then find the next number in the sequence. -3, 9, -27, 81, ...

User Vesperto
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1 Answer

2 votes

Answer:

-243

Explanation:

To solve this problem you will need to know the difference between an arithmetic and a geometric.

An arithmetic is a sequence where a person is adding the same number over and over again so lets say you start with 1 and the common difference (the number being added each time) is 2, the sequence will look something like this 1, 3, 5, 7, 9 and so on.

A geometric sequence is when the same number is being multiplied over and over again. So lets say that the number we start with is 2 and you are multiplying by three every single time, so you would get a sequence looking like this 2, 6, 18, 54 and so on.

We can see in the sequence that the number that is being multiplied over and over again is -3 so the answer is a geometric sequence.

Now that we know that it is a geometric sequence we will multiply the last number which is 81 by -3 which will get us -243

User Hosane
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