Answer all the questions

Mason put sticky notes on some pages of his math book. The page numbers for this sequence: 3,7,11,15,19,…

a) describe the rule for the sequence. What is the common difference?
b) find the next two term of the sequence? Show your work

1 answer

a) The sequence of page numbers is: 3, 7, 11, 15, 19.

To describe the rule for the sequence, we can observe that each term increases by a constant amount from the previous term. Specifically:

  • From 3 to 7, the increase is 4 (7 - 3 = 4)
  • From 7 to 11, the increase is also 4 (11 - 7 = 4)
  • From 11 to 15, the increase is again 4 (15 - 11 = 4)
  • From 15 to 19, the increase is again 4 (19 - 15 = 4)

Thus, the common difference of the sequence is 4.

In general, we can describe the \( n^{th} \) term of the sequence as: \[ a_n = 3 + (n - 1) \cdot 4 \]

b) To find the next two terms in the sequence after 19, we can add the common difference (4) to the last term:

  • The next term after 19: \[ 19 + 4 = 23 \]

  • The term after that: \[ 23 + 4 = 27 \]

Thus, the next two terms of the sequence are 23 and 27.

In summary:

  • The common difference is \( 4 \).
  • The next two terms are \( 23 \) and \( 27 \).