Question 74429
There is no clearcut way to find the general term for a sequence. If you know if its either geometric or arithmetic then its a little easier for you. However if you're just given a set of numbers without any further instructions then it might be difficult. In that case, you would have to look for a pattern that the numbers follow. For instance, the Fibonacci sequence is the set of numbers:


0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8...


Where the general term is *[Tex \Large F_n=F_{n-1}+F_{n-2}]. In other words to get 8 we add 5 and 3. To get 3, we add 2 and 1. This applies to every term. This is just one odd sequence that doesn't follow the rules. So it's difficult to determine a set of numbers follows the Fibonacci sequence if you've never seen one before. So go ahead and post the set of numbers so I can look at them.