SEQUENCES Evaluating A Sequence (Page 8 of 11)

Some sequences are defined recursively rather than as functions of n. This means that each term in the sequence depends on the value of one or more previous terms. To evaluate a recursively defined sequence on the TI-83 or TI-84, you MUST be in sequence mode and you MUST define the sequence in the sequence editor.

Let's find the first four terms of the recursively defined sequence a(subscript 1) = 3, a(subscript n) = n^2*a(subscript n-1). First define the sequence as u in the sequence editor. Be sure that nMin = 1, then define the rule for the sequence on the next line. Enter a(subscript n-1) as u(n-1), which refers to the previous term in the sequence. For a recursively defined sequence you must also specify u(nMin), which represents the first term a(subscript 1). For this example the first term is 3, so set u(nMin)=3..
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