11.

Infinite Series

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 Short-hand notation for infinite series
A few notations are commonly used to represent an
infinite series:
or
,
where , the th partial sum
 The infinite series is either converge or diverge

 Often, we use the term ‘series’ and ‘infinite series’

interchangeably.
 When a series converges to , we write

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Example of a partial sum formed by a
sequence {an=(1/2)n-1}

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 Geometric series
 Geometric series are the series of the 
form
a + ar + ar + ar + …+ ar +…= 
n 1
2 3 n-1 ar
n 1
 a and r = an+1/an are fixed numbers and a0. r is
called the ratio. is called the ‘first term’.
 Three cases can be classified: r < 1, r > 1,r =1.

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 For cases |r|≥1
a 1  r n 
If |r|  1: lim sn  lim   (Because | r n |  if |r|>1
n  n  1 r

If r  1:sn  a  a (1)1  a (1) 2  ...  a(1) n 1  a  aa  ...  a  na

n terms

lim sn  lim na  a lim n  

n  n  n 

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Example 2 Index starts with n=0
 1
n

5 5 5 5 5
 The series 
n 0 4n
 0  1  2 - 3  ...
4 4 4 4

is a geometric series with a=5, r=-(1/4).

 It converges to s∞= a/(1-r) = 5/(1+1/4) = 4

 Note: Be reminded that no matter how complicated

the expression of a geometric series is, the series is
simply completely specified by r and a. In other
words, if you know r and a of a geometric series,
you know almost everything about the series.

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Example 4
. .
5.232323  5.23  5.23
Express the
. .
above decimal as a ratio of two
5.23  5  
integers.
  0.23  0.0023  0.000023  
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 0.23     
100
   1  0.01
  0.0001
    ( note : a  1, r  0.01)
a ar ar 2

a 1 1 1 100
    
1  r 1  0.01 1  1 99 99
100 100
. . 23 100 23
5.23  
100 99 99 21
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Example 5: Telescopic series

1
 Find the sum of the series 
n 1 n( n  1)
 Solution
1 1 1
 
n(n  1) n (n  1)
k k
1 1 1
sk     
n 1 n( n  1) n 1 n (n  1)
1 1   1 1   1 1   1 1 1 1 
  
   
     ...    
   
1 2   2 3   3 4   k 1 k   k k 1 
1
 1
k 1

1

n 1 n ( n  1)
 lim sk  1
k 
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Divergent series
 Example 6
n 2
 1  2  4  16  ...  n 2  ...

diverges because the partial sums sn grows beyond every number L

n 1 2 3 4 n 1
 n 1 2 3
    ... 
n
 ...

diverges because each term is greater than 1,

2 3 4 n 1 
    ...   ... > 1  
1 2 3 n n 1

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Note
 In general, when we deal with a series, there are
two questions we would like to answer: 

 (1) the existence of the limit of the series s  

k 1
ak
 (2) In the case where the limit of the series exists,
what is the value of this limit?

 The tests that will be discussed in the following

topics only provide the answer to question (1) but
not necessarily question (2).

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