Page 239 - Mind Games The Aging Brain and How to Keep it Healthy

Enjoy Your Ageless Mental Agility • 223

Find the next term in this sequence:
5, 10, 15, 20, . . .
To solve this problem, you would go through these steps:

1. Identify the question. You need to find the next num-
ber in the sequence.
2. Note all of the facts you already have. You have four
terms already. They appear to be a collection of 1s, 5s,
and 0s, with one 2.
3. Determine what is missing. You don’t know the pat-
tern. (You may know already, but it will help to follow
the sequence of inductive-reasoning steps to learn the
process).
4. Do some creative work. Take a look at how each term is
built from the ones before it.

Notice that the numbers go up by 5 each time. This is the
five times table. You have 1 ´5, 2 ´5, 3 ´5, and 4 ´5. Predict
that the next term is 5 ´5 = 25.
Find the next term in this sequence:
1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, . . .
Follow these steps:
1. Identify the question. You need to find the next num-
ber in the sequence.
2. Note all of the facts you already have. You have seven
terms already. Except for the second term, they increase
in value. The increase is not the same.
3. Determine what is missing. You don’t know the pat-
tern.
4. Do some creative work. Take a look at how each term is
built from the one before it.

Notice that 1 + 1 = 2, 1 + 2 = 3, 2 + 3 = 5, 3 + 5 = 8, and 5 +
8 = 13. Each number after the first two is the sum of the two
numbers before it. Predict that 8 + 13 = 21 is the next term in
the sequence. This is a famous sequence called the Fibonacci
sequence, named after the Italian mathematician who studied