Evaluate the limit n → ∞ lim e − n k = 0 ∑ n + ⌊ n ⌋ k ! n k . Enter your answer rounded to 4 decimal places.
Notation:
⌊
⋅
⌋
denotes the
floor function
.
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Who would have guessed that we're solving for ∫ − ∞ 1 2 π 1 e − x 2 / 2 d x .
And here I thought that this infinite series has no "nice answer".
Is there a better way to phrase this problem such that the users know that it has a "nice answer"? Obviously, we can't phrase the problem like the one below.
Prove that n → ∞ lim e − n k = 0 ∑ n + ⌊ n ⌋ k ! n k = ∫ − ∞ 1 2 π 1 e − x 2 / 2 d x .
And it's weird that WolframAlpha gives an answer of 0 when n = 1 0 6 .
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Well, given the slow rate of convergence (only 2 DP by n = 1 0 0 0 0 ), it seems that to ask for 4 DP makes it clear that there must be a noncomputational solution... Any more clues give the game away, I think.
There are bound to be computational issues with n = 1 0 6 or greater, You are adding extremely large numbers, and dividing them by an extremely large one, namely e 1 0 6 . Doing that in an accurate way will be very difficult, and is probably not within the default range of WA.
Nice solution.
Some reverse engineering is done in creating these kind of problems.
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Note that A n = e − n k = 0 ∑ n + ⌊ n ⌋ k ! n k = P [ N n ≤ n + n ] where N n is a random variable with Poisson distribution P o ( n ) . But then we can write N n = X 1 + X 2 + X 3 + ⋯ + X n where X 1 , X 2 , X 3 , … , X n are independent and identically distributed, all with the Poisson distribution P o ( 1 ) . The Central Limit Theorem now tells us that n 1 ( N n − n ) → Y in distribution as n → ∞ , where Y ∼ N ( 0 , 1 ) has the standard Normal distribution, and so n → ∞ lim A n = n → ∞ lim P [ N n ≤ n + n ] = n → ∞ lim P [ n 1 ( N n − n ) ≤ 1 ] = P [ Y ≤ 1 ] = Φ ( 1 ) making the answer 0 . 8 4 1 3 4 4 7 4 6 .