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I was recently asked how to call a number sequence, and since I am not sure about naming conventions, I am grateful for any help.

There is a sequence of real numbers, where:

  • the next element always equals the previous element, multiplied by 2
  • 1 is included

A slice of this sequence will look like that: 0.0625, 0.125, 0.25, 0.5, 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32.

Is there a well-known name for this sequence? I see powers of two, starting from 1, but is there a name like “integers” or “Fibonacci numbers”?

Are there separate names for an integer part and fractional part? I saw several names in OEIS, but what about fractional part?

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    $\begingroup$ The numbers on the left (less than $1$) are negative powers of $2$ $\endgroup$
    – Henry
    Jan 8, 2020 at 14:02
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    $\begingroup$ That's a geometric sequence with coefficient $q=2$ & first term $a_1=0.0625$ $\endgroup$
    – Invisible
    Jan 8, 2020 at 14:08

1 Answer 1

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It is called a geometric progression of common ratio 2. The first element of the sequence is the scale factor.

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