Page 241 - Mind Games The Aging Brain and How to Keep it Healthy

Enjoy Your Ageless Mental Agility • 225

Consider this sequence: 1, 4, 9, 16, 25, . . . What is the
next number in the sequence? You might recognize that this
is a sequence of perfect squares.
The first term is 1 ´1 = 1.
The second term is 2 ´2 = 4.
The third term is 3 ´3 = 9.
The fourth term is 4 ´4 = 16.
The fifth term is 5 ´5 = 25.

Predict that the pattern would continue, and the sixth
term would be 6 ´6 = 36.
Consider this sequence: 1, 3, 6, 10, . . .
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 four
terms already. They appear to be getting larger. They are
not consecutive numbers. They are not the perfect
squares.
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.

You might add 1 + 2 to get to 3, but 3 + 2 is not 6. 3 + 3 is
6. What do you add to 6 to get to 10? Well, it’s 4. Write the
numbers in a table, and take a look at the pattern.

1

1+ 2 = 3
3+ 3 = 6

6+ 4 = 10