Algebra II Honors Problem of the Day Homework page 885 1-37 odds Find the indicated sums.
3, 8, 13, 18, 23, . . . The above is an example of an arithmetic sequence. In an arithmetic sequence a particular amount is added to the current term to get the next term in the sequence. This amount is called the common difference of the arithmetic sequence and is represented by the letter d.
The sequence 3, 8, 13, 18, 23, . . . can be written as 3, 3+5, 3+5+5, 3+5+5+5, 3+5+5+5+5, . . . or in general as a, a+d, a+d+d, a+d+d+d, a+d+d+d+d, . . . or better yet as where a is the first term in the sequence.
If we think about the terms of the above sequence as Then we can write a formula for any term (the general term formula) as follows: