Question

Find the next term in this arithmetic sequence: 2/3, 2, 3 1/3, ____

Answer 1

Answer:

Problem 1: $4\frac{2}{3}$

Problem 2: 2.5

Problem 3:  0

Step-by-step explanation:

If it tells you it is arithmetic, it is give you a huge hint.  Arithmetic sequences have common differences. That means if you do:

$\text{term}-\text{ term right before}$ you will get the same number.

Problem 1:

$\text{Term}-{Previous}$

$2-\frac{2}{3}$

$1\frac{1}{3}$

So the common difference is $1\frac{1}{3}$.

The next term can be found by adding $1\frac{1}{3}$ to the previous.

$3\frac{1}{3}+1\frac{1}{3}=4\frac{2}{3}$.

Problem 2:

0.5 , 0.7 , ....

Start with finding the common difference:

$0.7-0.5$

$0.2$ is the common difference.

The common difference can be used to find the next term given it's previous term.

So you have:

First term is 0.5 .

Second term is 0.7 .

Third term is 0.7+ 0.2=0.9 .

Fourth term is 0.9 + 0.2=1.1 .

You could find a pattern so you don't have to find all the terms before the 11th.

So let's start over:

First term is 0.5 .

Second term is 0.5+0.2 .

Third term is 0.5+0.2(2).

Fourth term is 0.5+0.2(3).

.............

nth term is 0.5+0.2(n-1).

The thing in parenthesis was always one less than term number we wanted to find.

The 11th term is given by 0.5+0.2(10).

Let's simplify:

0.5+0.2(10)

0.5+2

2.5

2.5 is the 11th term.

Problem 3:

We are going to do something similar that we did for the problem before this one.

First common difference is given by:

Term-Previous

24-27

-3

The common difference is -3. (It is going down by 3 each time.)

The tenth will be given by 27+-3(9).

Let's simplify:

27+-3(9)  

27+-27

0