{"id":237496,"date":"2025-06-17T09:37:21","date_gmt":"2025-06-17T09:37:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/learnexams.com\/blog\/?p=237496"},"modified":"2025-06-17T09:37:23","modified_gmt":"2025-06-17T09:37:23","slug":"find-the-nth-term-of-the-geometric-sequence-2-6_-18-54-162","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.learnexams.com\/blog\/2025\/06\/17\/find-the-nth-term-of-the-geometric-sequence-2-6_-18-54-162\/","title":{"rendered":"Find the nth term of the geometric sequence: -2, ~6_ -18- -54 ~162"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Find the nth term of the geometric sequence: -2, ~6_ -18- -54 ~162<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><mark style=\"background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)\" class=\"has-inline-color has-ast-global-color-1-color\">The Correct Answer and Explanation is:<\/mark><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>To find the <strong>nth term<\/strong> of a <strong>geometric sequence<\/strong>, we use the formula:an=a\u22c5rn\u22121a_n = a \\cdot r^{n-1}an\u200b=a\u22c5rn\u22121<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Where:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>ana_nan\u200b is the nth term<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>aaa is the first term<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>rrr is the common ratio<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>nnn is the term number<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Step 1: Identify the first term and common ratio<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>From the given sequence:\u22122,&nbsp;6,&nbsp;\u221218,&nbsp;54,&nbsp;\u2212162,&nbsp;\u2026-2,\\ 6,\\ -18,\\ 54,\\ -162,\\ \\ldots\u22122,&nbsp;6,&nbsp;\u221218,&nbsp;54,&nbsp;\u2212162,&nbsp;\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The <strong>first term<\/strong> a=\u22122a = -2a=\u22122<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>To find the <strong>common ratio<\/strong>, divide the second term by the first:<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>r=6\u22122=\u22123r = \\frac{6}{-2} = -3r=\u221226\u200b=\u22123<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So each term is multiplied by -3 to get the next one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Step 2: Plug into the formula<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Now substitute into the geometric sequence formula:an=\u22122\u22c5(\u22123)n\u22121a_n = -2 \\cdot (-3)^{n-1}an\u200b=\u22122\u22c5(\u22123)n\u22121<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Final Answer:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>an=\u22122(\u22123)n\u22121\\boxed{a_n = -2(-3)^{n-1}}an\u200b=\u22122(\u22123)n\u22121\u200b<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Explanation (300 words):<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>A geometric sequence is a list of numbers where each term after the first is found by multiplying the previous one by a fixed number known as the common ratio. In this problem, we are given a sequence: -2, 6, -18, 54, -162. To find a formula that represents the <strong>nth term<\/strong> of this sequence, we begin by identifying key components.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The <strong>first term<\/strong> is simply the starting number of the sequence, which is -2. This value is referred to as aaa in the general formula.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The <strong>common ratio<\/strong> is calculated by dividing any term by the one that comes before it. For instance, 6 divided by -2 gives -3. Repeating this with other terms confirms the ratio is consistent: -18 divided by 6 also equals -3, and so on. This confirms the sequence is indeed geometric, and the common ratio rrr is -3.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Using the geometric formula an=a\u22c5rn\u22121a_n = a \\cdot r^{n-1}an\u200b=a\u22c5rn\u22121, we substitute the known values. This gives us an=\u22122\u22c5(\u22123)n\u22121a_n = -2 \\cdot (-3)^{n-1}an\u200b=\u22122\u22c5(\u22123)n\u22121. This expression will correctly generate every term in the sequence. For example, for n=1n = 1n=1, a1=\u22122\u22c5(\u22123)0=\u22122a_1 = -2 \\cdot (-3)^0 = -2a1\u200b=\u22122\u22c5(\u22123)0=\u22122. For n=2n = 2n=2, a2=\u22122\u22c5(\u22123)1=6a_2 = -2 \\cdot (-3)^1 = 6a2\u200b=\u22122\u22c5(\u22123)1=6, and so on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This formula is useful because it lets you find any term in the sequence without listing all the terms before it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/learnexams.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/learnexams-banner8-853.jpeg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-237497\"\/><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Find the nth term of the geometric sequence: -2, ~6_ -18- -54 ~162 The Correct Answer and Explanation is: To find the nth term of a geometric sequence, we use the formula:an=a\u22c5rn\u22121a_n = a \\cdot r^{n-1}an\u200b=a\u22c5rn\u22121 Where: Step 1: Identify the first term and common ratio From the given sequence:\u22122,&nbsp;6,&nbsp;\u221218,&nbsp;54,&nbsp;\u2212162,&nbsp;\u2026-2,\\ 6,\\ -18,\\ 54,\\ -162,\\ \\ldots\u22122,&nbsp;6,&nbsp;\u221218,&nbsp;54,&nbsp;\u2212162,&nbsp;\u2026 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center 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