In the notation "s(x) = ...," what does "s(x)" represent?

1 answer:

6 0

"s(x)" is the name of a function of one variable, x. The "s" may be mnemonic for whatever the function calculates (speed or side length or surface area, for example), but may not have any particular meaning.

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Determine the formula for the nth term of the sequence:<br>-2,1,7,25,79,...

rodikova [14]

A plausible guess might be that the sequence is formed by a degree-4* polynomial,

$x_n = a n^4 + b n^3 + c n^2 + d n + e$

From the given known values of the sequence, we have

$\begin{cases}a+b+c+d+e = -2 \\ 16 a + 8 b + 4 c + 2 d + e = 1 \\ 81 a + 27 b + 9 c + 3 d + e = 7 \\ 256 a + 64 b + 16 c + 4 d + e = 25 \\ 625 a + 125 b + 25 c + 5 d + e = 79\end{cases}$

Solving the system yields coefficients

$a=\dfrac58, b=-\dfrac{19}4, c=\dfrac{115}8, d = -\dfrac{65}4, e=4$

so that the n-th term in the sequence might be

$\displaystyle x_n = \boxed{\frac{5 n^4}{8}-\frac{19 n^3}{4}+\frac{115 n^2}{8}-\frac{65 n}{4}+4}$

Then the next few terms in the sequence could very well be

$\{-2, 1, 7, 25, 79, 208, 466, 922, 1660, 2779, \ldots\}$

It would be much easier to confirm this had the given sequence provided just one more term...

* Why degree-4? This rests on the assumption that the higher-order forward differences of $\{x_n\}$ eventually form a constant sequence. But we only have enough information to find one term in the sequence of 4th-order differences. Denote the k-th-order forward differences of $\{x_n\}$ by $\Delta^{k}\{x_n\}$ . Then

• 1st-order differences:

$\Delta\{x_n\} = \{1-(-2), 7-1, 25-7, 79-25,\ldots\} = \{3,6,18,54,\ldots\}$

• 2nd-order differences:

$\Delta^2\{x_n\} = \{6-3,18-6,54-18,\ldots\} = \{3,12,36,\ldots\}$

• 3rd-order differences:

$\Delta^3\{x_n\} = \{12-3, 36-12,\ldots\} = \{9,24,\ldots\}$

• 4th-order differences:

$\Delta^4\{x_n\} = \{24-9,\ldots\} = \{15,\ldots\}$

From here I made the assumption that $\Delta^4\{x_n\}$ is the constant sequence {15, 15, 15, …}. This implies $\Delta^3\{x_n\}$ forms an arithmetic/linear sequence, which implies $\Delta^2\{x_n\}$ forms a quadratic sequence, and so on up $\{x_n\}$ forming a quartic sequence. Then we can use the method of undetermined coefficients to find it.