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{an } = {a1 , a2 , a3 , · · · , an }.
For example, if an = n, then {an } is just the sequence of positive integers from 1 to n.
We are interested in the behaviour of an when n becomes large. Here are some examples:
an = n becomes arbitrarily large as n tends to infinity; the sequence {an } is therefore
divergent. On the other hand, if an = 1/n2 , which tends to 0 (a constant) as n tends to
infinity, then the sequence {an } is convergent.
convergent or divergent?
SOLUTION. As n gets larger, the fractional part gets smaller, with its sign oscillating
between +1 and -1. It manages to converge to 0 as n tends to infinity. ♣
1
The geometric series warrants special attention because it appears very often in math-
ematical work. In a general, we write a geometric series as
∞
X
2 n−1
a + ar + ar + · · · + ar + ··· = arn−1 ,
n=1
where a and r are fixed real numbers, with a 6= 0 and r can either be positive or negative.
For |r| ≥ 1, this series diverges, since the nth term increases as n increases. For |r| < 1,
the series converges to a/(1 − r). The proof is left as an exercise.
When we have an infinite series, we are usually concerned with two issues: does it
converge? and if it converges, what is its sum? A test for divergence uses the simple fact
that if a series converges, limn→∞ an must
P be 0.2 So if the latter is not 0 or does not exist,
then the series diverges. For example, ∞ n=1 n diverges because n 2
→ ∞. Also,
∞
X −n
,
n=1
n + 1
The series ∞
X 1
,
n=1
n!
converges, and must be less than 1 (the true value is e − 1 as we shall see later). ♣
3
EXAMPLE 6. Check if the following series converges or not:
∞
X 3
√ .
n=1
n+ n
√
SOLUTION. Write an = 3/(n + n), and choose dn = 3/(n + n) = 3/(2n). Clearly,
dn > an . Now,
∞
X 3
,
n=1
2n
diverges (see Example 4). This implies that
∞
X 3
√ ,
n=1
n+ n
Have you ever wondered how values of like e and log 0.5 are computed? It turns out that
there is a nice theory that allows us to compute such values to any degree of accuracy
that we need.
the Taylor expansion of f (x) about a. The Maclaurin series generated by f is just the
Taylor series with a = 0.
√
EXAMPLE 7. Suppose we have f (x) = x. To find the Taylor series generated by f
about a = 1, we need to find the nth derivative of f . Now, we know that
1
f 0 (x) = √
2 x
1
f 00 (x) = −
2 · 2x3/2
3
f 000 (x) =
2 · 2 · 2x5/2
3·5
f (4) (x) = −
2 · 2 · 2 · 2x5/2
4
By induction, we know that
(2n − 3)!!
f (n) (x) = (−1)n+1 ,
2n x(2n−3)/2
for n = 2, 3 . . ., where (2n − 3)!! = (2n − 3)(2n − 5) · · · 3 · 1. We can therefore write the
required Taylor series as
∞
√ 1 X (2k − 3)!!
x = 1 + (x − 1) + (−1)k+1 k (2k−3)/2 (x − 1)k .
2 k=2
2 k!x
√
Suppose we wish to find 1.01. You have already learned how to do this using linearisa-
tion. Actually,
√ the latter is a special case of using only the first two terms of the Taylor
series of x to approximate the true value. The higher order terms can be ignored √ be-
k k
cause (x − 1) = 0.01 ≈ 0. The so-called first order Taylor approximation of 1.01 is
therefore 1.005. The true value is 1.004988 (to 6 decimal places). ♣
In many cases, it is sufficient to just use the Maclaurin series. Below is a list of
Maclaurin series for very commonly encountered functions, from which several other
more series can be derived. You should try to confirm their correctness using Taylor
expansion.
∞
1 X
= 1 + x + x2 + · · · + xn + · · · = xn ; |x| < 1
1−x n=0
∞
x2 xn X xn
ex = 1 + x + + ··· + + ··· = ;
2! n! n=0
n!
∞
x3 x5 x2n+1 X x2n+1
sin x = x − + − · · · + (−1)n + ··· = (−1)n (−1)n .
3! 5! (2n + 1)! n=0
(2n + 1)!
which is valid for −1 < x ≤ 1. We can construct Maclaurin series for other functions by
appropriately applying integration or differentiation operation on the three basic expan-
sions given above. These are given as exercises in the tutorial.