Sequences, Series and Binomial Theorem
Cryptographers protect private data by encrypting it; this means they convert the data into a code that hackers and thieves cannot easily break.
A strange charge suddenly appears on your credit card. But your card is in your wallet—it’s not even lost or stolen. Sadly, you may have been a victim of cyber crime. In this day and age, most transactions take advantage of the benefit of computers in some way. Cyber crime is any type of crime that uses a computer or computer network. Thankfully, many people are working to prevent cyber crime. Sometimes known as cryptographers, these people develop complex patterns in computer codes that block access to would-be thieves as well as write codes to intercept and decode information from them so that they may be identified. In this chapter, you will explore basic sequences and series related to those used by computer programmers to prevent cyber crime.
Sections
- Sequences — writing the first few terms of a sequence, finding a formula for the general term, using factorial notation, finding partial sums, and using summation notation to write a sum.
- Arithmetic Sequences — determining whether a sequence is arithmetic, finding its general term, and finding the sum of its first terms.
- Geometric Sequences and Series — determining whether a sequence is geometric, finding its general term, finding finite and infinite geometric sums, and applying geometric sequences and series.
- Binomial Theorem — using Pascal’s Triangle to expand a binomial, evaluating binomial coefficients, and using the Binomial Theorem to expand a binomial.
This chapter overview is adapted from Intermediate Algebra 2e, Chapter 12 Introduction by Lynn Marecek and Andrea Honeycutt Mathis, © OpenStax, licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0. Access the original for free at openstax.org. Changes: described the source photograph in prose and recast the chapter outline as a section list.