THINK IT OVER

Think It Over

This section of Resonance presents thought-provoking questions, and discusses

answers a few months later. Readers are invited to send new questions, solutions
to old ones and comments, to ‘Think It Over’, Resonance, Indian Academy of
Sciences, Bangalore 560 080. Items illustrating ideas and concepts will generally
be chosen.

Shailesh A Shirali On a Use of Normal Distribution

Principal
Amber Valley Residential
School
K M Road Mugthihalli P r o b le m
F o r p o sitiv e in teg ers n , co n sid er th e q u a n tities A an d
Chickmagalur 577 101, India.
Email: n
shailesh_shirali@rediffmail.com B n d e¯ n ed b y
Z1
¼x
An = co s2 n dx ;
¡1 2

Z 1=pn
1 ¼x
B n = co s2 n dx : (1 )
A n ¡1=
p
n 2

It is ea sy to a n ticip a te th a t A n ! 0 w h en n ! 1 ;
so m e sa m p le va lu es a re d isp la y ed b elow , co m p u ted u sin g
M athem atica.

A 100 ¼ 0 :1 1 2 7 ;A 200 ¼ 0 :0 7 9 7 ;

A 400 ¼ 0 :0 5 6 4 ;A 1000 ¼ 0 :0 3 5 7 : (2 )
Keywords S in ce th e ra n g e o f in teg ra tio n in th e in teg ra l d e¯ n in g B n
Stirling approximation.
stea d ily d im in ish es, w e m ig h t a lso g u ess th a t B n ! 0
a s n ! 1 . B u t th e ¯ g u res tell u s o th erw ise; in d eed w e

RESONANCE ç July 2005 85

 THINK IT OVER

n !
a s n ! 1 . B u t th e ¯ g u res tell u s o th erw ise; in d eed w e
¯ n d th a t

B 100 ¼ 0 :9 7 4 2 ;B 200 ¼ 0 :9 7 3 9 ;

B 400 ¼ 0 :9 7 3 8 ;B 1000 ¼ 0 :9 7 3 7 : (3 )

T h e ¯ g u res su g g est th a t B n co n v erg es to a n o n -zero

va lu e (a p p rox im a tely 0 :9 7 4 ) a s n ! 1 . H ow m ay th is
b e ex p la in ed ? W h a t is th e lim itin g va lu e, a n d ca n it b e
ex p ressed in clo sed fo rm ?

Anagrams of Wiiliam Burnside:

I WARN DUMB LILIES

SIMILAR, BLUE WIND
I WILL SUM IN BREAD
MEDUSA ILL; WIN RIB
I WILL DREAM IN BUS
BILL; I MUSE INWARD
INLAW IS MULE BIRD
I DRAW IN SEMI-BULL
I WILL DUB SEMINAR
BILL; I MUSE DARWIN
I AM ILL; WIN RED BUS
ALL MINIBUS WIRED
WELD RAIL, MINIBUS
I, SIR, BAN WILD MULE
DIAL; WE RUIN LIMBS
REDIAL US; WIN LIMB
I’M BRAINWISE DULL
... Kanakku Puly

86 RESONANCE ç July 2005