Infinite Series and its Convergence

Continued

Content taken from the Book “Thomas Calculus” By “George B Thomas”

Topic 10.5 & 10.6 of 13th edition of the book
THEOREM 14—The Root Test
Let a n be any series and suppose that
lim n an  
n
Then
(a) the series converges absolutely if ρ < 1,
(b) the series diverges if ρ > 1 or ρ is infinite,
(c) the test is inconclusive if ρ = 1.
Proof (a) Let ρ < 1. Choose an ɛ > 0 so small that ρ + ɛ < 1.
By definition of limit, there exists an index M such that
n an     for n  M
Then it is also true that
an       for n  M
n

   
n
Now, geometric series with ratio ρ + ɛ < 1, converges.
nM
 
By the Comparison Test, a
nM
n
converges, from which it follows that
 

a
n 1
n  a1  a2  ...  aM 1   an
nM

converges. Therefore, a n
converges absolutely

(b) 1 < ρ ≤ ∞. For all indices beyond some integer M, we have

n an  1  an  1 for n  M
The terms of the series do not converge to zero.
The series diverges by the nth-Term Test.
 
1 1
(c) For ρ = 1, consider the two series  and  2
n 1 n n1 n
In both cases, ρ = 1.
The first series diverges whereas the second converges.
The test is inconclusive.
EXAMPLE 4 Which of the following series converge, and which
diverge?

(a)

(b)

(c)

(d)
Alternating Series

A series in which the terms are alternately positive and

negative is an alternating series.

Here are three examples:

THEOREM 15—The Alternating Series Test
The series

converges if all three of the following conditions are satisfied:

1. The un’s are all positive.
2. The positive un’s are (eventually) non-increasing:
un ≥ un+1 for all n ≥ N, for some integer N.
3. un0.
Proof: Assume N = 1.
If n is an even integer, say n = 2m, then the sum of the first n terms is
s2m = (u1 – u2) + (u3 – u4) + … + (u2m-1 – u2m)
= u1 – (u2 – u3) – (u4 – u5) – … – (u2m-2 – u2m-1) – u2m
The first equality shows that s2m is the sum of m nonnegative terms,
since each term in parentheses is positive or zero.
Hence s2m+2 ≥ s2m and the sequence {s2m} is non-decreasing.
The second equality shows that s2m ≤ u1
Since {s2m} is non-decreasing and bounded from above, it has a
limit, say
(1)

If n is an odd integer, say n = 2m + 1, then the sum of the first n

terms is s2m+1 = s2m + u2m+1.

Thus as m  ∞
s2m+1 = s2m + u2m+1  L + 0 = L (2)

Combining the results of Equations (1) and (2) gives

 EXAMPLE 1 The alternating harmonic series

clearly satisfies the three requirements of Theorem 15 with N = 1; it

therefore converges.
Some times it is better to use slope of function to show sequence as non-increasing.
EXAMPLE 2 Consider the sequence where un = 10n/(n2 + 16).

Define ƒ(x) = 10x / (x2 + 16).

Then from the Derivative Quotient Rule

It follows that un ≥ un+1 for n ≥ 4.

That is, the sequence {un} is non-increasing for n ≥ 4.

Conditional Convergence
A convergent series that is not absolutely convergent is
conditionally convergent.
Example:
The alternating harmonic series is conditionally convergent, or
converges conditionally.
EXAMPLE 4 If p is a positive constant, the sequence {1/np} is a
decreasing sequence with limit zero.
Therefore the alternating p-series

converges

If p > 1, the series converges absolutely as an ordinary p-series.

If 0 < p ≤ 1, the series converges conditionally by the alternating
series test.
Determine if the alternating series converges or diverges.
Summary of Tests
 Next Lecture
Power Series and its Convergence