How do you find the common ratio of #-1/4,1/8,-1/16,1/32,...#?

1 Answer
Jacobi J.
Aug 1, 2018

#-1/2#

Explanation:

How do we get from #-1/4# to #1/8#? Notice our sign changed, so we multiplied by a negative.

One way to get from #-1/4# to #1/8# is to multiply by #-1/2#.

How do we get from #1/8# to #-1/16#? We can multiply by #-1/2# again.

What about from #-1/16# to #1/32#? We can multiply by #-1/2#.

Notice, to get to each successive term, we are multiplying by #-1/2#. This is our common ratio.

Hope this helps!

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