OmegaLearn.org Chapter 1.

Algebra

1.5 Telescoping
Video Link(s)
Telescoping

Concept 1.5.1 (Telescoping)

Expand the first few and last few terms, and cancel out any terms you see.

Remark 1.5.2
Generally, whenever you have long expressions that seem to be hard or impossible to
compute manually, telescoping is probably at play.

Concept 1.5.3 (Partial Fraction Decomposition)

Partial fraction decomposition is a telescoping technique in where you split terms into
multiple terms in order for terms to cancel. In general, to find the partial decomposition
of ab
1
for any arbitrary variables a and b, we write the equation

x y 1
+ =
a b ab
and then solve for x and y. For example, the partial fraction decomposition of
1
n(n + 1)

(in this case a = n and b = n + 1 is

1 1
−
n n+1
Using partial fraction decomposition, we can telescope and evaluate expressions easily.

1.6 Speed, Distance, and Time

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Speed, Distance, and Time

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