Lesson: Determining Missing Term/s in a Sequence of Numbers

Objective: Determine the missing term/s in a sequence of numbers (e.g. odd numbers, even
numbers, multiples of a number, factors of a number, etc.) odd numbers, even numbers,
multiples of a number, factors of a number, etc.) (M4AL- IIIe-5)

Look at this sequence of numbers. What are the missing terms?

Do the numbers increase?

Is there a pattern in the increases?

What is the next term?

The difference between two numbers increases by 1 each time.

Another example. Find the missing term in this number sequence.

The sequence of number is in descending

order. Get the difference between the two terms
63 and 56, the difference is 7. The missing term
is 49.

A list of numbers arranged in a row is called number sequence. Each number in the sequence
is called a term. To determine the missing term/number in each given sequence, find out if
the pattern uses: multiples of a number, odd or even numbers, or the four fundamental
operations that establish a pattern either in increasing or decreasing order.

Let us study these patterns and their rule:

In order to know the next term, you have to study the patterns and know the rule.

In numerals, we can easily find the rule by looking into the next term and subtracting
the term before it if it is in increasing order. The difference is what is being added to the
existing numeral in order to get the numeral next to it.
2, 4, 6, 8, ____, ____ 4-2=2,6-4=2,8-6=2

Rule Add 2 to find the next term So, the missing terms are 10 and 12

5, 10, 15, 20, ____, ____ 10 - 5 = 5 , 15 - 10 = 5 , 20 – 15 = 5

Rule Add 5 to find the next term So, the missing terms are 25 and 30

If it is in decreasing order, subtract the previous term from the new term. The
difference is what is being subtracted from the existing numeral to get numeral next to it.

33, 30, 27, 24, ____, ____ 33 -30 = 3 , 30 - 27 = 3 , 27-24 = 3

Rule Subtract 3 to find the next term So, the missing terms are 21 and 18

Sometimes the pattern is a combination of sequence of illustrations and numerals like

the following:

As what we can see, the three shapes are drawn repeatedly and
sequentially as the numerals go higher. Therefore, the missing terms will be:

9 10

In some instances, patterns of figures are used. We just need to observe the series of sequence
of objects or illustrations in order to get the next terms.

Looking carefully into the pattern as to how the objects or figures have been arranged,
we can see that is being added to both ends so, the next term will be: