This lab is an overview of sequences and series.

Sequences
A sequence is an infinite list of numbers , s is the first term; s is the second term; s is the general or n For example, the sequence of terms . can be denoted by the general term

Using Maple to generate terms of a sequence

We can use the seq command in Maple to construct a finite number (list) of terms in a sequence if we are given a formula for the nth term s of a sequence.

Give the first ten terms of the sequence Solution: Execute the seq command as follows:

Give the 5th through 15th terms of the sequence Solution:

The first argument of the seq command is the expression for the n is, s . The second argument tells Maple which terms to construct (using a range of values). When the seq n, through the range of integers given (1..10, 5..15, etc...).

Plotting a sequence
To visualize the sequence, you could make up a list of ordered pairs of the form (n, s ) and plot the resulting points. The seq command can be also used to generate the points.

Plot the first 10 terms of the sequence Solution: First define the list of points (

to be plotted. This can be done as follows:

For convenience, the list is given a name, list1. Note the use of square brackets in this command line, in particular, , since points must be in square brackets to be plotted. An

extra set of square brackets is added around the seq command, so the resulting output is in list form, which then can be plotted. Then use the pointplot command to plot the points.

9 10

Limit of a sequence - convergence/divergence

Often, we want to determine if a given sequence s has a limit as . We can try plotting a large number of points (n, s ) to examine the long-term behavior of a sequence. We can also try to evaluate . If the limit L exists, then the sequence is said to converge to L. If the limit does not exist or there is no limit, the sequence diverges.

Does the sequence

converge or diverge? If it converges, find its limit.

Solution: Looking at the graph above, for the sequence sequence converges. The limit confirms this. it appears that so the

Does the sequence Solution:

converge or diverge?

Generate the first few terms of the sequence (

and plot them:

4 3 2 1 0 0 2 4 6 8 10

The sequence does not converge; the terms bounce back and forth between 1 and 3, and do not approach any fixed number.

Maple gives the "limit" as a range: between 1 and 3. Since Maple has not given the limit as a single number, you should conclude from this output that the limit does not exist.

Series
When the terms of an infinite sequence are added together, the result is an infinite series (or just a series), denoted by . n = 1. Next, we investigate the convergence of a series using partial sums.

Sequence of Partial Sums

To investigate convergence of a series, we can consider the sequence of partial sums the sequence of partial sums converges to a value S, that is, if converges, and If the limit , then the series diverges. . If

does not exist, the series

To define the sequence of partial sums, we can use function notation in Maple:

Does the series Solution:

converge or diverge?

To determine whether the series converges or diverges, let's define the sequence of partial sums:

To see the first few partial sums, you can use the seq command as follows:

To plot the partial sums, you can use the same method used in plotting terms of a sequence above. (output of the sequence is suppressed with a colon)

3 2 1 0

10

15

20

According to the graph, the sequence of partial sums appears to converge to about 2.25. You can verify this by calculating .

9 4 So we conclude that the series example of a geometric series ). In contrast, here are the first few terms of the sequence of terms a in the series: converges and has value . This series is convergent if 9 . (This is an 4 and has value

And a plot of the sequence of terms:

8 10 12 14 16 18 20

The sequence of terms appears to converge to 0, and you can check with a limit that this is correct. This does not mean that the series has a sum of 0. Do not confuse the limit of a sequence with the limit of a partial sum. Note: If the limit of the sequence of terms was non-zero or did not exist, then the given series would be divergent (this is the n-th term Test for Divergence - see below).

Evaluating sums directly

Maple is good at finding the exact values of some (but not all) infinite series. To try to evaluate a sum of a series directly, you can use the sum command or using the Expression palette. Here is the geometric series from Example 6. template in the

9 4 Here is an example of a p p = 2.

The following is called a telescoping series.

1 Here are some more geometric series:

1 2

The harmonic series

If Maple cannot evaluate a sum exactly, it will return the unevaluated sum. If a series is

Tests for Convergence of Positive Term Series

In general, it is not possible to evaluate the sum of a series directly or to find the limit of a sequence of partial sums as to see if a series converges, even with Maple. Maple does not have specific commands to determine whether a series converges or diverges. But we can use Maple to apply the standard convergence tests for a series. These tests include the Integral Test, Limit Comparison Test and the Ratio Test, among others. In the examples that follow, the series are positive term series, which means for all

. Some tests have certain requirements before they can be used to test for convergence. Some tests will fail for certain series, in which case another test must be used. Certain tests require the calculation of some limits at infinity which may be difficult to do by hand. Maple is usually good at calculating these limits.

The n-th term test for Divergence

If If does not exist or , then the series diverges. , the test fails. The series may converge or diverge.

Example 8
Show the series Solution: Try the divergence test by calculating : diverges.

1 5 So , so the series diverges by the Divergence Test.

Note that if , you cannot conclude that the series is convergent. The series may converge or diverge. Another test must be used.

The Integral Test

Suppose , where If If is positive, continuous and decreasing for all converges, then diverges, then converges. diverges. .

Example 9
Show the series Solution: The terms in this series are positive and decreasing for positive, continuous and decreasing for Evaluate the integral . (the function is converges.

), so the Integral Test can be applied.

0.8465735903 This integral has a finite value, therefore it converges. So the series converges as well. Note that the value of the integral is NOT the sum of the series. In fact, the sum of the series is:

0.9375482543

In general,

Limit Comparison Tests

Suppose If and are positive-term series (i.e., , then the two series and and for all n). either both converge or both diverge.

If If

and and

is known to converge, then is known to diverge, then

converges. diverges.

Usually, the comparison series is a p-series or a geometric series, or some other series that is known to either converge or diverge.

Example 10
Determine whether the series Solution: For large n, behaves like , so take . converges or diverges.

Now evaluate the limit of

as n

1 Since the limit = 1 > 0, and the series is a convergent p-series ( ), the given

series also converges by the limit comparison test.

The Ratio Test

For a series , suppose the sequence of ratios has a limit L as n . If If , then the series converges. diverges. . Use

If , then the test fails, i.e. the test tells us nothing about the convergence of another test. The ratio test is useful for series that contain factorials.

Example 11
Determine whether the series Solution: Apply the ratio test by calculating the limit . converges or diverges.

4 Since the limit = , the series diverges by the ratio test.

Example 12
Use the ratio test to determine whether the series Solution: converges or diverges.

1 2

Since the limit =

, the series converges by the ratio test.

Example 13
In Example 9, it was shown that the series that the ratio test cannot be used to verify this result. Solution: converges by the integral test. Show

1 Since the limit is 1, the ratio test fails.

Estimating the Sum of a Series

The Integral Test can be used to estimate the error in using a partial sum to approximate a convergent series. For example, note that . Maple found this above in Example 7. Suppose Maple

(or you) did not know the value of this sum and you just added the first 50 terms of the series. How close are you to the actual sum? Note the error in using the n-th partial sum to estimate the sum S of the series is just .

You could easily just add up the first 50 terms and subtract the partial sum from the exact value to get the error.

But what if you did not know the sum of the series was found? The Integral Test can be used to find this upper bound.

? Can an upper bound on the error be

The error estimate can be determined as follows, using the following inequalities: Error Estimate Suppose , where f is a continuous, positive, decreasing function for and convergent series by the Integral Test. If , where S is the sum of the series and partial sum of the series, then is a is the n-th

. (*) If we replace with and add to each side of the inequalities above, we get:

. These inequalities give a lower and upper bound on the sum S. They provide a more accurate approximation to the sum of the series than the partial sum does To see why (*) is true, first note the error in using 50 terms is The sum because for is a right-hand Riemann sum for . x = 1), and it is an lower sum

is decreasing (i.e., it is an underestimate of the integral). You can plot a right-hand sum

to verify this.

Therefore, error.

. So the value of the integral can be used as an upper bound on the

The upper bound on the error is 0.02. The actual error was found above to be 0.019801334.

The sum because

is also a left-hand Riemann sum for

x = 1), and it is an upper sum

is decreasing (i.e., it is an overestimate of the integral). So, the value this integral can be

used as a lower bound on the error.

Therefore, 0.01960784314

So the sum of the series

is between:

and

A better estimate of the sum is an average of Smin and Smax.

1.644936656 The maximum error in using the average is:

Therefore

Compare this with the exact sum:

1.644934068 Given a maximum error E, you can also use the inequalities above to determine a minimum value of n that will ensure that the error in using the partial sum to approximate the sum of a series S is less than E.

Example 14
Find a value of n that will ensure that the error in using is at most 0.0035. Solution: to approximate the sum of the series

We need

. We have

from the inequalities above. So we want

. First evaluate the integral, adding the assumption that if this assumption on n is not specified. . Maple will give a warning message

1 Now we want .

Discard as a solution since n is not negative. So n should be at least 286 (round up to the nearest integer!) to ensure accuracy to within 0.0035. The solution could also be obtained graphically by plotting and the line and seeing where they intersect.

Alternating Series and Absolute Convergence

An alternating series is of the form (the terms alternative in sign). If an alternating series satisfies the Alternating Series Test. The terms or of the form , where for all n

for all n and , then the series converges. This is must (eventually) be in a decreasing sequence.

Example 15
Determine whether the series or diverges. Solution: Given a series absolute value , we can consider the series . So if . Note the following. , then obtained by replacing each term with its . So converges absolutely, converges conditionally,

A series A series

converges absolutely if both converges conditionally if

and

converge. diverges.

converges but

If is absolutely convergent, then convergence. So we now check for convergence.

is convergent. That is, absolute convergence implies

Note the divergent harmonic series. So

. By comparison, this is larger than diverges, so the series does

not converge absolutely. It may converge conditionally though, so we check if our original alternating series converges. We can use the Alternating Series Test to see if this series converges. Take The limit of as is checked and is indeed 0. .

0 To show that the sequence of terms can show the function (eventually) decreases, you can plot the sequence or you

b(n) = is eventually decreasing. For some N, show that the derivative of b(n) is always negative for all n > N.

The first term

is clearly positive for

. Look at the second term

This term is negative for . So the derivative of is negative, which means decreases, so the sequence of terms decreases. Therefore the given series converges. Therefore, converges conditionally.

Note: The Ratio Test is inconclusive with this series.

Example 16
Determine whether the series or diverges. Solution: Again, first see if the series is inconclusive. Let's try a limit comparison test. By trial and error, evaluate (with was chosen the comparison series (a convergent p-series). Now ). converges. You could try the Ratio Test, but it converges absolutely, converges conditionally,

Since the limit = 0, and

converges, the series

converges. It follows

converges absolutely, and is therefore convergent.

Power Series
A series of the form is called a power series in

or a power series centered at or a power series about . The 's are constants called the coefficients of the series and x is a variable. The value a is also a constant. The power series could be thought of as a polynomial with infintely many terms.

For a given power series, we are interested in determining the values of x for which the series converges. Sometimes the values of x are in some interval of values called the interval of convergence. The interval may be closed, open or half-open, depending on whether the series converges at the endpoints of the interval. A given series may just converge at x = a or converge for all real numbers. Notice also that when converges when . all of the terms are 0 for and so a power series about always

Example 17
Find the exact interval of convergence of the power series Solution: We need to find the x-values for which this series converges. The radius of convergence can be found by using the Ratio Test for Absolute Convergence. For absolute convergence, For convenience, first define . as a function of n. .

By the Ratio Test, the series is absolutely convergent (therefore convergent ) when the limit .

So the series will converge for , and diverges for the endpoints ? These must be checked as well.

and

. What happens at

At

, the series becomes (just plug in

and at

, the series becomes

into the power series). Both are divergent

series (use the Divergence Test). So the exact interval of convergence is .

Example 18
Find the exact interval of convergence of the power series Solution: Again, use the Ratio Test. .

By the Ratio Test, the series is (absolutely) convergent when the limit

So the series will converge for check the endpoints and

, and diverges for .

and

. Again, we must

At

, the series becomes .

and at

, the series

becomes

The first series is an alternating series. It can be shown that this series converges by the Alternating Series Test.

We can write

The limit of

as

is checked and is indeed 0.

To show that the sequence of terms

0 (eventually) decreases, you can show the function b(n) =

is eventually decreasing. For some N, show that the derivative of b(n) is always negative for all n > N.

It can be seen that the derivative will be negative when So the sequence of terms eventually decreases (to 0). Therefore by the Alternating Series Test, the series power series converges at .

, or when

converges. So the given

However, the second positive-term series larger than the divergent harmonic series given power series diverges at .

is divergent because, by comparison, it is (you could also use the Integral Test). So the

So the exact interval of convergence of the given power series is