Hi Jen,

The nth term of a sequence is an expression that describes every term in the sequence. For example for the sequence

2, 4, 8, 16, ...

one way to write the nth term is 2ⁿ. This gives every term in the sequence

n = 1: 2ⁿ = 2¹ = 2
n = 2: 2ⁿ = 2² = 4
n = 3: 2ⁿ = 2³ = 8
n = 4: 2ⁿ = 2⁴ = 16

To see more examples go to the Quandaries and Queries page on Math Central and use the Quick Search to search for the term nth term.

Penny