Calculate the difference and ratio between consecutive terms. Is either of these the same throughout the sequence?
Is the sequence geometric, arithmetic, or neither?Geometric Next three terms: 35, - 325, and 3125 Graph
Practice makes perfect
We want to identify the given sequence as arithmetic, geometric, or neither. To do so we will calculate the difference and ratio between consecutive terms.
We can see above that the differences are not the same. However, the ratios are the same. Therefore, the sequence is a geometric sequence with a common ratio of - 0.2.
To obtain the next three terms, we multiply by - 0.2.
To graph the sequence, we will let the horizontal axis represent the position of the term within the sequence — this is the domain — and the vertical axis will represent the value of the terms — the range.
