Mathematical Statistics (Sequence and Series)

4. BOUNDED AND UNBOUNDED SEQUENCE

(a) Definition
1. A sequence an is said to be bound above, if  a real number K s.t. an  K  n  N.
K is called an upper bound of the sequence an.

0 1 2 3 ... n n+1

Figure. Bounded above sequence

2. A sequence an is said to be bounded below, if  a real number k s.t. k  an  n  N.
k is called a lower bound of the sequence an.
3. A sequence an is said to be bounded, if it is both bounded above and bounded below.
Equivalently, an is bounded, if there exist two real numbers k and K such that k  an
 K  n  N.

0 1 2 3 ... n n+1

-K
Figure. Bounded sequence
Examples

1 1 1 1
1.  1, , , ,....
n 2 3 4

1
is bounded, as 0 <  1  n  N.
n
2. 1 + (–1)n = 0, 2, 0, 2, ... is bounded.
(b) Unbounded Sequence
Sequence which is neither bounded above nor below is called an unbounded sequence.
(c) Supremum and Infimum of a Sequence
The minimum value of the upper bounds of sequence is known as Supremum or least upper
bound (lub) of a sequence.
The greatest of the lower bounds of a sequence is known as the Infimum or greatest lower bound
(glb) of a sequence.

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 Mathematical Statistics (Sequence and Series)

Examples:
1. the sequence {n2} is bounded below: n2 > 0 n  IN but not bounded above;
2. the sequence {–n} is bounded above: –n < 0 n  IN but not bounded below;
3. the sequence {(–1)n + 1} is bounded : |(–1)n + 1|  2 n  IN.
Infinitely large sequences represent an important subset of unbounded sequences.
Definition : A sequence {xn} is called infinitely large if K  R nK  N such that
|xn| > K n  nK.
As an example, we show that the sequence {(–1)n n3} is infinitely large. Indeed, for any number
K, we can find nk such that |(–1)n n3| > K n  nK. To this end, we solve the inequality n3 > K, and n
3
> K . t Let nk = [ 3 K ] + 1, where [c] is the integer part of c. Then for n  nK we obtain.

n  nk  3 K  n3  K  ( 1)n n3  K.

From above Definitions it follows that any infinitely large sequence is unbounded. However, the
converse is not true: there exist unbounded sequences that are not infinitely large. For example, such
is the sequence {(1 – (–1)n)n}.
The concept of a limit plays a very important role in mathematics.
Definition. A sequence {xn} is called infinitely small if
lim x n  0,
n

that is for any  > 0 there exists n such that

x n    n  n .
For example, the sequence {qn} for |q| < 1 is infinitely small. Indeed, for any  > 0 let us find n
such that |qn| <  n  n. To this end, we solve the inequality |qn| < , assuming that 0 <  < 1 (for
 1, this inequality is clearly true for any n  IN):

In  In  
n In |q| < In   n > , n =   + 1,
In q  In q 

where In  < 0, and In |q| < 0, since  < 1, and |q| < 1. Thus, for n  n we have

In  n
n  n   In   q  .
In q

The fact that {xn} is not infinitely small means the following: there exists 0 > 0 such that for any
n  IN there exists kn > n with xkn > 0.

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