When asked to find the n-th term of a linear sequence, you are asked to find the rule or the formula that allows you to find any term in the sequence.
This formula is of the form an + b; where the following criteria must be met:
- ‘a‘ is any positive or negative number (but not 0)
- ‘b‘ is any positive or negative number (can be 0)
- ‘n‘ must be a positive integer (whole number)
To find the n-th term for a sequence you need to go through a few steps. Suppose you have the following
STEP 1: Find the increase from term to term (+3 in this case)
STEP 2: List the correponding times table above the sequence ( 3 times table in this case)
STEP 3: Find the difference between terms in the 2 sequences
STEP 4: The nth term formula for this sequence is therefore
Example 2
You can also have a sequence that decreases in order. Here is an example
Given the sequence above, the steps to find the nth term are listed below.
