ShmoopTube

00:02

A little birdy told us you wanted to solve a shmoopy problem...so, tweet tweet.

00:07

In a sequence, each number is five less than the square of the previous number.

00:12

If the first number is 2, what is the fourth number?

00:18

All right – we’re told that we’re dealing with a sequence…and we know the pattern:

00:23

each number is five less than the square of the previous number.

00:26

So let’s start with the first number…

00:28

To find the second term, we have to square 2…which gives us 4, and then take 5 less

00:33

than that…4 minus 5 gives us NEGATIVE 1 as the second term.

00:38

Third term. Again, we square negative 1… which gives us 1.

00:42

Then we subtract 5 to give us NEGATIVE 4.

00:45

Fourth term…which is what we’re looking for. Negative 4 squared gives us 16.

00:50

Then subtract 5 is 11.

00:52

Fourth number is 11…and we’ve got our answer.

Full Transcript