Year 10 (Track 3)

Patterns & Sequences

A sequence is a set of numbers (or diagrams) arranged in a particular rule. Each number in a sequence
is called a term. This rule could be a simple addition or multiplication, which takes you from one term to
the next, but often it is trickier than that. It is important to observe the pattern of a sequence.

Examples: 1. The rule to generate the terms in a sequences is

“multiply the previous term by 2 then subtract 1”,
The sequence has 6 terms and the first term is 2.
a) Write down all the terms of the sequence.

b) Work out the sum of the first three terms of the sequence.

2. A sequence starts with 2 and then follows the following rule: “add 3 to the previous term”
a) Write down all the terms in the sequence if the sequence has 10 terms

b) Write down the terms of the sequence which are prime numbers _______________________

c) Write down all the factors of the 7th term _______________________

d) Work out: i) the sum of all the terms in the sequence

ii) the product of the 3rd and 8th terms

3. Write down the next three terms for each of the following sequences:

a) 4, 7, 10, 13, _____, _____, _____ b) 1, 2, 4, 8, _____, _____, _____

c) 96, - 48, 24, - 12, _____, _____, _____ d) 1, 2, 4, 7, _____, _____, _____

e) 2x, 4x2, 8x3, 16x4, _____, _____, _____ f) 4, 7, 13, 22, _____, _____, _____

4. Complete the following sequence: _____, _____,25, 32, 40, _____

Patterns & Sequences (Notes) page 1 of 4

 Year 10 (Track 3)
Sometimes the rule for a sequence can be represented as an expression.
This expression is called the nth term of the sequence.
When the nth term is given, one can work each term as follows …

i.e. the nth term of a sequence is given by 5n – 3

Examples: The nth term of Sequence A is 3n + 1 and the nth term of Sequence B is 5n – 4
a) Write down the first five terms of Sequence A.

b) Write down the first five terms of Sequence B.

c) Work out the sum of the first three terms of Sequence A.

d) Which term in Sequence B is equal to the sum of the first three terms in Sequence A?

Finding the nth term

When the pattern in a sequence is known, a general formula that is suitable for each and every term in
that particular sequence can be found. This is referred to as the nth where n is a natural number.

When the difference between the terms is constant, we can use this difference to find the nth term.

Example: 1. Write down the nth term for each of the following sequences. Hence find the 15th term.
a) 4, 7, 10, 13, … b) 5, 12, 19, 26, … c) – 5, – 3, – 1, 1, 3, …

2. From the sequence 2, 9, 16, 23, … find the first term that is greater than 200

Patterns & Sequences (Notes) page 2 of 4

 Year 10 (Track 3)
th
When the difference between the terms is not constant, we have to find the n term by trail and error.

IMPORTANT: When the difference is a sequence of ODD NUMBERS, the sequence is based on n2

Examples: 3. Write down the nth term for each of the following sequences.
1 1 1 1 2 3 4
a) 1, 4, 9, 16, … b) 1, , , ,... c) 0, , , , ,...
2 3 4 2 3 4 5

1 2 1 4
d) 0, , , , ,.... e) 2, 5, 10, 17, … f) 3, 10, 29, 66, ..
4 5 2 7

Problems
1. The following five boxes form a number pattern
2 4 6 3 9 12 4 16 20

5 a b c d e

Find the values of a, b, c, d and e.

2. In the number pyramid shown on the right, each line is built from
the numbers in the line below. Find the values of A, B, C and D. 42
23 19
12 A B
4 8 C D

3. A pattern of triangles is built from matchsticks.

1st set 2nd set 3rd set

a) Draw the 5th set of triangles in this pattern.

b) How many matchsticks are needed for the nth set of triangles?
c) How many matchsticks are needed for the 60th set of triangles?
d) If there are only 100 matchsticks, which is the largest set of triangles that could be made?

Patterns & Sequences (Notes) page 3 of 4

 Year 10 (Track 3)
4. A school dining room has tables in the shape of a trapezium. Each table can seat 5 people, but
when the tables are joined together, each table can’t seat as many people as shown below.

a) In this arrangement, how many could be seated if they use:

i) 4 tables ii) n tables iii) 13 tables

b) For an outside charity event, up to 200 people have to be seated. How many tables in this
arrangement do they need?

5. The figure shows three squares with edges of 3, 4 and 5 tiles. The tiles on the border are white tile
and the other are shaded tiles.

a) What would be the number of white tiles for a square with an edge of 6 tiles? _______ Ans
b) What would be the number of shaded tiles for a square with an edge of 6 tiles? _______ Ans
c) Complete the table below

Edge of Square (number of tiles) 3 4 5 6 7

Number of white tiles

Number of shaded tiles

d) For a shape with an edge of n tiles, give an expression in terms of n for the number of white
tiles on the border. (PI. 10)

Patterns & Sequences (Notes) page 4 of 4