I'm having trouble with this problem:

Guess a simple formula for the sequence that begins:
-1, 1/2, -1/3, 1/4, -1/5

term(n) = (-1)^n x 1/n will do it

To find a simple formula for the given sequence, we can look for patterns in the terms.

The first term in the sequence is -1, which can be written as (-1)^1 x 1/1.
The second term is 1/2, which can be written as (-1)^2 x 1/2.
The third term is -1/3, which can be written as (-1)^3 x 1/3.
The fourth term is 1/4, which can be written as (-1)^4 x 1/4.
And the fifth term is -1/5, which can be written as (-1)^5 x 1/5.

From these patterns, we can see that each term can be written as (-1)^n x 1/n, where n denotes the position of the term in the sequence.

Thus, the formula for the given sequence is term(n) = (-1)^n x 1/n.