What does linear mean in math terms?

Answer 1

A linear equation/term is where the differences in a sequence of numbers is irregular

Example:

n 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

linear 3 5 7 9 11 13 15 17

Difference 2 2 2 2 2 2 2

n 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

non-linear 2 5 10 17 26 37 50 65

Difference 3 5 7 9 11 13 15

In this example the nth term for the linear sequence is 2n + 1 and for the non-linear sequence n squared + 1. Another way of seeing this is to make a line on a graph where the equation for the line is Y= 2X + 1 (replace n with X and put 'Y=' at the beginning) and this line will be straight as it's equation is LINEar whereas a non-LINEar equation will make a curve and not a line.