Chapter 11 - Sequences; Induction; the Binomial Theorem - Section 11.2 Arithmetic Sequences - 11.2 Assess Your Understanding - Page 834: 14

The first four terms are: $1, 2, 3,4$ and Common difference is $1$.

Recall: Exponential property $e^{\ln n}=n$ We need to substitute $1, 2, 3,$ and $4$ for $n$ into the given equation to find the first four terms. $s_1=e^{\ln 1}=1$ $s_2=e^{\ln 2}=2$ $s_3=e^{\ln 3}=3$ $s_4=e^{\ln 4}=4$ We can see that the terms increase by $1$ unit. Thus, the sequence is arithmetic with a common difference of $1$.