Math 3283W: Sequences, Series & Foundations F13 Exam 3 Solutions

The following is a non-comprehensive list of solutions to the exam problems. In some cases I may give an answer with
just a few words of explanation. On other problems the stated solution may be complete. As always, feel free to ask
if you are unsure of the appropriate level of details to include in your own work.

Please let me know if you spot any typos and I’ll update things as soon as possible.

(1) All of these are false; each part appeared on an earlier homework assignment so you can check the skills
problem solutions for possible counterexamples.

(2) (a) This was a definition which I mentioned multiple times in class you should know. A sequence (sn ) is said
to converge to the real number s provided that for each ε > 0, there exists N such that n > N forces
|sn − s| < ε. (Note that you could say N ∈ N or N ∈ R, n > N or n ≥ N and have an equivalent
definition for full credit.)
 
n − 1 1
(b) We wish to solve 
 −  < ε. Combining the terms inside the absolute value gives:
2n 2
 
n − 1 1
 2n − 2  < ε
 
 
n − 1 − n
 <ε
 2n 
 
 −1 
 2n  < ε
 

1
<ε
2n
1
<n
2ε
1
Thus N = works.
2ε
1 1 1
(c) Let ε > 0 be given and set N = . Then n > N means n > so that < ε. Then
2ε 2ε 2n
       
an − 1  =  n − 1 − 1  =  n − 1 − n  =  −1  = 1 < ε
       
 2   2n 2  2n   2n  2n

as desired.

(3) This was extremely similar to problems given on homework and done in lecture.
(a) For any sequence, lim sn = lim sn+1 . In our case that means

2s + 7
s=
3
3s = 2s + 7
s=7

2s1 + 7 4+7 11
(b) We’re given s1 = 2, and you can compute that s2 = = = . Thus s1 ≤ s2 , which provides
3 3 3
the base case for a proof by induction that sn is increasing, and hence monotone. To complete the proof,
1
 assume sk ≤ sk+1 . Then
2sk + 7 sk+1 + 7
sk+1 = ≤ = sk+2 .
3 3
(c) We’ve shown sn is increasing, which means it is bounded below by s1 = 2. We can prove it is bounded
above with another short proof by induction. We suspect from (a) that it is bounded above by 7 (although
plenty of people proved it’s bounded above by 8, 9, 10, or other numbers on the test, which was fine).
s1 = 2 ≤ 7, which establishes the base case. Now suppose sk ≤ 7. Then
2sk + 7 2·7+7 14 + 7 21
sk+1 = ≤ = = = 7.
3 3 3 3
(d) We’ve shown sn is bounded and monotone. Therefore it converges by the Monotone Convergence Theorem.

(4) This was a collection of examples from lecture (or slight variants thereof).

∞ ∞ n
(−1)n · 3 X

X 3
(a) = 3 − is a geometric series with a = 3, r = −3/4. Since |r| < 1, it converges to
n=0
4n n=0
4
a 3 3 12
= 3 = = .
1−r 1+ 4
7/4 7
∞
X
(b) On the final exam you could say (−1)n diverges by noting that (−1)n does not converge to 0, and cite
n=1 P
the Test for Divergence. (i.e. the contrapositive of the theorem that says “ an converges ⇒ an → 0.”)
On this exam we had to look at the sequence of partial sums:

s1 = −1
s2 = 0
s3 = −1
s4 = 0
..
.

In other words (sn ) = (−1, 0, −1, 0, −1, 0, . . .). We can prove this diverges using methods from Section 4.1.
A common method is a proof by contradiction: assume sn → s. Thus for ε = 1/2 there exists N such
that n > N forces |sn − s| < 1/2. But regardless of what N is, there will always be values of n satisfying
n > N for which sn = 0 and sn = −1. Thus both of these inequalities must be satisfied:

| − 1 − s| < 1/2 ⇔ −3/2 < s < −1/2

|0 − s| < 1/2 ⇔ −1/2 < s < 1/2

This leads to a clear contradiction, since s can’t be both less than and greater than −1/2.

(5) This is an application of the Ratio Test in Chapter 4, which was used in examples in lecture, among other
n2
places. For sn = n ,
3
 sn+1  (n + 1)2 3n n2 + 2n + 1
 
1
 sn  = 3n+1 · n2 = → <1
 
3n2 3
which means sn → 0.

Jonathan Rogness <rogness@math.umn.edu> December 12, 2013

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