Question:
Write the first five terms of the following sequence and obtain the corresponding series:
$a_{1}=a_{2}=2, a_{n}=a_{a-1}-1, n>2$
Solution:
$a_{1}=a_{2}=2, a_{n}=a_{n-1}-1, n>2$
$\Rightarrow a_{3}=a_{2}-1=2-1=1$
$a_{4}=a_{3}-1=1-1=0$
$a_{5}=a_{4}-1=0-1=-1$
Hence, the first five terms of the sequence are 2, 2, 1, 0, and –1.
The corresponding series is 2 + 2 + 1 + 0 + (–1) + …