Lesson: Using Arithmetic Sequence Formulas Mathematics

In this lesson, we will learn how to write explicit and recursive formulas for arithmetic sequences to find the value of the nth term in an arithmetic sequence and how to find a term’s order given its value.

Lesson Plan

Objectives

Students will be able to

calculate a specified term of an arithmetic sequence using the relation ,
calculate a recurrence formula for an arithmetic sequence,
calculate the formula for the term of an arithmetic sequence,
find the order of a specific term in an arithmetic sequence.

Prerequisites

Students should already be familiar with

sequence notation,
the definition of an arithmetic sequence,
calculating the common difference of an arithmetic sequence.

Exclusions

Students will not cover

listing an arithmetic sequence given information about it,
arithmetic mean,
arithmetic series,
applications of arithmetic sequences,
geometric sequence formulas or other types of sequences.

Lesson Video

Lesson Explainer

Sample Question Videos

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03:18
01:07

Lesson Worksheet

Q1:

Find the first term of an arithmetic sequence whose common difference is , where .

Q2:

Find the order of the term whose value is 112 in the sequence .

Q3:

Find , given the arithmetic sequence .