How to Find the nth Term in a Sequence

Kellie writes: “I am told to find the nth number in a pattern. What the heck does nth mean?”

So I’ll first answer the question directly. Then we can talk about what it means to the rest of the problems.

One more piece of the puzzle before we’re on to solve problems. I’ll bet you saw something in there about n-1 or n+1. Here’s a bit about that…

Now let’s get into writing the nth term of a sequence using the one before it. Remember the nth term is the number in the list if you count up to whatever you’ve labeled n.

In the previous video, we would have written it in fancy terms like this:

Once more, just to get the hang of it:

Again, this one would have been written:

Aha! But what if you don’t know the number right before the one you want? Watch this:

Still have questions? Post them in the comments.

Thanks Kellie, for your question!