Example 1: 

Find the 35th term in the arithmetic sequence 3, 9, 15, 21, …

There are three things needed in order to find the 35th term using the
formula:
the first term ( a1 )
the common difference between consecutive terms ( d )
the term position ( n )

From the given sequence, we can easily read off the first term and common
difference. The term position is just the “n” value in the nth term, thus in the
35th term, n=35.
Example 2: Find the 125th term in the arithmetic sequence 4, −1, −6, −11, …

This arithmetic sequence has the first term a1= 4, and a common difference of −5.

Since we want to find the 125th term, the “n” value would be n = 125. The following
are the known values we will plug into the formula:

The missing term in the sequence is calculated as,

Example 3: If one term in the arithmetic sequence is a21 = –17 and the common
difference is d = –3. Find the following:
a) Write a rule that can find any term in the sequence.
b) Find the twelfth term (a12) and eighty-second term (a82) term.

Solution to (a)
Because we know a term in the sequence which is a21 = –17 and the common
difference d = –3, the only missing value in the formula which we can easily solve is the
first term a1.
Since a1 = 43 and d = –3, the rule to find any term in the sequence is

How do we really know if the rule is correct? What I would do is verify it with the
given information in the problem that a21 = –17.
So we ask ourselves, what is a21 = ?
We already know the answer though but we want to see if the rule would give us −17.
Since a1= 43, n = 21 and d = −3
Solution to (b)
To answer the second part of the problem, use the rule that we found in part a) which
is

Here are the calculations side-by-side.