Exercise · ZW-HOMOGENEOUS-LINEAR-RECURRENCE-002 · ★☆☆ Basic

What is the order of \(a_n=5a_{n-1}-6a_{n-3}\)?

Choose one option.

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  • A. 3

Explanation

The order is how far back it reaches: the farthest term is \(a_{n-3}\), so the order is 3 (even though \(a_{n-2}\) is missing).

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Review the concept: Homogeneous linear recurrence

A homogeneous linear recurrence of order \(k\) expresses each term \(a_n\) as a combination of the previous \(k\) terms with constant coefficients \(c_1,\dots,c_k\), with no independent term.

\[a_n=c_1a_{n-1}+c_2a_{n-2}+\cdots+c_ka_{n-k},\quad c_k\neq0\]

More practice problems: homogeneous linear recurrence

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