The way that you would do this is by taking

out of the binomial, or as I like to think about it, 'un-distributing'. :p

out of

, you end up with

.
When you take

out of

, you get

.
Put it together, and the solution is

-

.
Hope I helped!!
For the answer to the question above,
a1 = 40
<span>a2 = 20 </span>
<span>a3 = 10 </span>
<span>.. </span>
<span>aN = (1/2^N-1) a1 { in general aN= (r^N-1) A1 </span>
<span>a5 = (1/2^4) 40 = 40/16 = 2.5
</span>
So the answer to your question is 2.5
I hope my answer helped you. Feel free to ask more questions. Have a nice day!