Number Patterns

Good evening, Grade 6s!

Tonight's homework may be tricky for some of you, as the explanation was really quick.

Let's review:

Because we are looking at patterning, we want to see how the numbers are related to each other.

For example, let's say I have a number pattern the following 6 terms:

6, 18, 54, 162, 486, 1458

To figure out how these numbers are connected, let's start with what we know.

We know that 6 x 3 = 18. We also know that 6 + 12 = 18. Our next step is to check our choices against the rest of the terms in the pattern to see if the rule applies to all terms.

18 + 12 does not equal 54, so the pattern rule can't be +12 each time.

18 x 3 does equal 54. Let's check the next term to make sure it also follows the rule:

54 x 3 does equal 162.

Etc., etc.

So...we would write the pattern rule as follows:

Start at 6. Multiply by 3 each time.

Questions? Post 'em here!

See you tomorrow :).

-Ms. Lewis.