5/25/2017 CalculusIISeriesSpecialSeries

Series SpecialSeries
Inthissectionwearegoingtotakeabrieflookatthreespecialseries.Actually,specialmaynotbethe
correctterm.Allthreehavebeennamedwhichmakesthemspecialinsomeway,howeverthemainreason
thatweregoingtolookattwooftheminthissectionisthattheyaretheonlytypesofseriesthatwellbe
lookingatforwhichwewillbeabletogetactualvaluesfortheseries.Thethirdtypeisdivergentandso
wonthaveavaluetoworryabout.

Ingeneral,determiningthevalueofaseriesisverydifficultandoutsideofthesetwokindsofseriesthat
welllookatinthissectionwewillnotbedeterminingthevalueofseriesinthischapter.

So,letsgetstarted.

GeometricSeries
Ageometricseriesisanyseriesthatcanbewrittenintheform,

or,withanindexshiftthegeometricserieswilloftenbewrittenas,


Theseareidenticalseriesandwillhaveidenticalvalues,providedtheyconvergeofcourse.

Ifwestartwiththefirstformitcanbeshownthatthepartialsumsare,

Theserieswillconvergeprovidedthepartialsumsformaconvergentsequence,soletstakethelimitofthe
partialsums.

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