Expert: Steve Holleran - 11/17/2007

Question
im in the 8th grade and i take integrated math 1.
im having trouble finding a rule for a function table!

here are the x and y factors:

X- 1 2 3 4 5
Y- 2 5 10 17 26

can you think of a rule?

i have been burning my brain on this and i still can NOT find a rule.


Answer
Hi Dara,

It's not easy, because its not a linear relationship.
Notice how the x's go up by 1 each time, but the y's go up by 3, 5, 7, 9, etc?

Let's try a square relationship:

1^2 + 1 = 2

2^2 + 1 = 5

3^2 + 1 = 10

4^2 + 1 = 17   etc

so it looks like y = x^2 + 1

Hope this helped in time/

Steve