The first four terms of a sequence are \text{3, -6, 12, -24}. Write an explicit formula for this sequence, where n is any term number and a\left(n\right) is the nth term.

Respuesta :

You can see that each term is twice the previous one, with inverted sign.

You double a number by multiplying it by two, and you change its sign by multiplying it by -1.

So, you multiply each term by 2 and by -1, which results in a multiplication by -2.

Since we start with 3, the terms are

[tex]a_1 = 3[/tex]

[tex]a_2 = 3\cdot (-2) = -6[/tex]

[tex]a_3 = -6\cdot (-2) = 12[/tex]

and so on. So, the general term is

[tex]a_n = 3\cdot(-2)^{n-1}[/tex]