What is the 20th term of the arithmetic sequence 2, –4, –10, … ?

1 Answer
Feb 8, 2016

After the first term you obviously subtract 6 at every step.

Explanation:

At the 20th term you must have done this 19 times.
So the 20th term is 2-(19*6)=-112

Watch it!
Most of the times the first term is called t_0.
This means that the 20th term is then t_19

But if they ask you for t_20 (=21th) it's different:
t_20=2-(20*6)=-118