Exercise · ZW-RECURRENCE-RELATION-010 · ★★★ Advanced

Let \(a_0=1\) and, for \(n\ge1\), \(a_n=a_0+a_1+\cdots+a_{n-1}\). What is \(a_6\)?

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  • A. 32

Explanation

The terms are \(1,1,2,4,8,16,32\): for \(n\ge1\) each term doubles the previous one, so \(a_n=2^{n-1}\) and \(a_6=32\).

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Review the concept: Recurrence relation

A recurrence relation is an equation that expresses each term \(a_n\) of a sequence in terms of the previous \(k\) terms; with initial values, it determines the whole sequence.

\[a_n=f(a_{n-1},a_{n-2},\dots,a_{n-k})\]

More practice problems: recurrence relation

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