How do you write the first five terms of the sequence a_n=(-1/2)^n?

1 Answer
May 25, 2018

Plug it in!

Explanation:

So we have to know where the sequence starts, but we will assume it starts at n = 0 (there may be some different practice in your class, usually n = 1 if not n = 0)

Therefore, we can plug in the first few:
a_0 = (-1/2)^0 = 1
a_1 = (-1/2)^1 = -1/2
a_2 = (-1/2)^2 = 1/4
a_3 = (-1/2)^3 = -1/8
a_4 = (-1/2)^4 = 1/16

giving us the beginning of our sequence.