Algebra Examples

$2$ , $5$ , $10$ , $17$

Find the first level differences by finding the differences between consecutive terms.

$3, 5, 7$

Find the second level difference by finding the differences between the first level differences. Because the second level difference is constant, the sequence is quadratic and given by $a_{n} = a n^{2} + b n + c$ .

$2$

Solve for $a$ by setting $2 a$ equal to the constant second level difference $2$ .

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Set $2 a$ equal to the constant second level difference $2$ .

$2 a = 2$

Divide each term in $2 a = 2$ by $2$ and simplify.

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Divide each term in $2 a = 2$ by $2$ .

$\frac{2 a}{2} = \frac{2}{2}$

Simplify the left side.

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Cancel the common factor of $2$ .

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Cancel the common factor.

$\frac{2 a}{2} = \frac{2}{2}$

Divide $a$ by $1$ .

$a = \frac{2}{2}$

Simplify the right side.

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Divide $2$ by $2$ .

$a = 1$

Solve for $b$ by setting $3 a + b$ equal to the first first level difference $3$ .

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Set $3 a + b$ equal to the first first level difference $3$ .

$3 a + b = 3$

Substitute $1$ for $a$ .

$3 \cdot 1 + b = 3$

Multiply $3$ by $1$ .

$3 + b = 3$

Move all terms not containing $b$ to the right side of the equation.

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Subtract $3$ from both sides of the equation.

$b = 3 - 3$

Subtract $3$ from $3$ .

$b = 0$

Solve for $c$ by setting $a + b + c$ equal to the first term in the sequence $2$ .

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Set $a + b + c$ equal to the first term in the sequence $2$ .

$a + b + c = 2$

Substitute $1$ for $a$ and $0$ for $b$ .

$1 + 0 + c = 2$

Add $1$ and $0$ .

$1 + c = 2$

Move all terms not containing $c$ to the right side of the equation.

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Subtract $1$ from both sides of the equation.

$c = 2 - 1$

Subtract $1$ from $2$ .

$c = 1$

Substitute the values of $a$ , $b$ , and $c$ into the quadratic sequence formula $a_{n} = a n^{2} + b n + c$ .

$a_{n} = 1 n^{2} + 0 n + 1$

Simplify.

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Simplify each term.

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Multiply $n^{2}$ by $1$ .

$a_{n} = n^{2} + 0 n + 1$

Multiply $0$ by $n$ .

$a_{n} = n^{2} + 0 + 1$

Add $n^{2}$ and $0$ .

$a_{n} = n^{2} + 1$

Substitute in the value of $n$ to find the $n$ th term.

$a_{5} = {(5)}^{2} + 1$

Raise $5$ to the power of $2$ .

$a_{5} = 25 + 1$

Add $25$ and $1$ .

$a_{5} = 26$