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Article: Patterns
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- Mathematics
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Copyright informationCOPYRIGHT 2002 The Gale Group Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Patterns
Patterns in mathematics may be either numerical or visual. Three common numerical patterns (also referred to as sequences) are arithmetic, geometric, and exponential.
Common Numerical Sequences
In an arithmetic sequence, a common difference exists between a term and its previous term. For example, the sequence {1, 2, 3, 4, 5} has a difference of 1 between every term, making it arithmetic.
Geometric sequences have a common ratio, that is, a multiplying number, between every term. For example, the sequence {3,
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6, 12,
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24} is geometric because it has a common ratio of
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2.
Finally, an exponential sequence has a base, or a number, that is raised by an ...
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