1/22/23, 1:33 PM UW Möbius - Functions

Sequences
A sequence is a list of numbers. It can be finite (e.g., 2, 4, 6, 8) or infinite (e.g., 1, 4, 9, 16, … ).
Sequences are used in science to describe the behaviour of phenomena that involve discrete
separation (e.g., quantum energy states) or to describe discretely-separated observations of
continuously-varying processes (e.g., time-series measurements).

We use the notation

{a n }
n=M
n=1
= (a 1 , a 2 , … , a M −1 , a M )  for a finite
sequence.

For an infinite sequence, we set M = ∞ , 

= (a 1 , a 2 , a 3 , …) .
n=∞
{a n }
n=1

Using this notation, we refer to the subscript n as the

index of the general term an .

Equivalently, we could think of n as the input to a

function n → an . We can thus represent a sequence
as a function whose domain is a set of positive
integers.

Many infinite sequences exhibit values that grow

larger and larger as the index increases (e.g.,  Graph of sequence with an =
n

n+1
.
1, 4, 9, 16, … ). For others, the terms settle toward a

finite value (e.g.,  1 , ).

3 4 5
, , ,…
2 4 5 6

https://uwmo.mobius.cloud/1169/9400/assignments/60289/0 19/20
1/22/23, 1:33 PM UW Möbius - Functions

Exercise: Sequences
9 16
Consider the sequence . Determine a formula for the general term an  as a
n=5 1 4
{a n } = { , , , , 5}
n=1 5 5 5 5

function of the index variable n .

  1/5*n^2   (1169/assignments/60289/0#questionstyle.0) 

Solution:
9 16 25
We write each term as a fraction with 5 in the denominator { 1 , 4
, , , } . Then we recognize the
5 5 5 5 5

numerators as a sequence of perfect squares {1, 4, 9, 16, 25} 2 2

= {1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 }
2 2 2
. Therefore, the n -th
2

term in the sequence is given by an =

n

5
.

https://uwmo.mobius.cloud/1169/9400/assignments/60289/0 20/20