george entered a function into his calculator andfound the following partail sums

s1=0.0016
s2= 0.0096
s3= 0.0496
s4= 0.2496
s5= 1.2496

determine the genral term of the corresponding sequence

how would I approach this question?

If this is a series then sn is the sum of the first n terms. So
s1 = 0.0016 = t1
s2 = 0.0016 + t2 or s2 - 0.0016 = t2
s3 = s2 + t3 or s3 - s2 = t3
s4 = s3 + t4 or s4 - s3 = t4

Now determine t1, t2, t3

Then determine what kind of sequence this is, arithmetic or geometric.

Determining the general term should follow fairly quickly.