At the end of this lesson, students should be able to;
Find the sequence or patterns of a set of numbers.
Find missing numbers in a sequence or pattern.
Number sequence also known as number patterns has to do with numbers in a series. That is, the numbers that follow each other.
Example 1
2, 4, 6, 8, 10, ….., ….., ….., …..
From the example above, we need to complete the pattern by writing the next four numbers. To be able to do this, we first need to find the pattern. To find the pattern we need to find the differences between any two set of numbers.
4 – 2 = 2
8 – 6 = 2
From the subtraction above, we can see that the difference is 2. This means that by adding on 2, we can complete the pattern. Therefore we have:
2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16, 18.
Example 2
0, 3, 6, 9, 12, 15, 18, 21, 24
This pattern is adding on 3.
Example 3
5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 35, 40
The pattern above is adding on 5 or writing the multiples of 5
Example 4
Number sequencing can also be done in descending order or in a backwards manner.
60, 55, 50, 45, 40, 35, 30, 25, 20, 15, 10, 5,0
From the pattern above the numbers are decreasing by 5
