My 12 year old daughter brought home the following math homework
problems last night.  Now everyone knows the standard joke about parents
being unable to help their children with the new math.  Now I consider 
myself intelligent and considering I have a Masters degree in Math from
Stanford, I figured I could handle this.

	Find the next three numbers in the sequences:

	1. -16, -6, +4, +1
	1. +16 -6 +4 +14 (just add +10 each time)
	2. +10 +6 +2 -2 (just add -4 each time)
	3. -5 +10 -20 +40 (-80 160 -320 ok so it's a little harder)
	4. -1 +1 -2 +6 (???????)

	I could provide a dozen different answers for a dozen different
reasons.  Could someone give me a simple answer an ordinary 7th grader
could understand?  Maybe these people write tax laws and texts for the
IRS during the summer months.  I wonder what the advanced 7th graders
get for problems?