Denominator is too large

Calculus Level 2

1 3 ! 2 ! 1 ! + 2 4 ! 3 ! 2 ! + 3 5 ! 4 ! 3 ! + = ? \dfrac{1}{3!-2!-1!}+\dfrac{2}{4!-3!-2!}+\dfrac{3}{5!-4!-3!}+\ldots = \ ?


The answer is 0.5.

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5 solutions

Mikael Marcondes
Apr 5, 2015

Expressing this as an infinite sum, we have:

S = n = 1 n ( n + 2 ) ! ( n + 1 ) ! n ! \displaystyle S= \sum_{n=1}^{\infty} \frac{n}{\left(n+2\right)!-\left(n+1\right)!-n!}

S = n = 1 n ( n + 2 ) ( n + 1 ) n ! ( n + 1 ) n ! n ! \displaystyle \implies S= \sum_{n=1}^{\infty} \frac{n}{\left(n+2\right) \cdot \left(n+1\right) \cdot n!-\left(n+1\right) \cdot n!-n!}

S = n = 1 n n ! [ ( n + 2 ) ( n + 1 ) ( n + 1 ) 1 ] \displaystyle \implies S= \sum_{n=1}^{\infty} \frac{n}{n! \cdot \left[ \left(n+2\right) \cdot \left(n+1\right)-\left(n+1\right)-1\right]}

S = n = 1 n n ! [ ( n + 2 1 ) ( n + 1 ) 1 ] \displaystyle \implies S= \sum_{n=1}^{\infty} \frac{n}{n! \cdot \left[ \left(n+2-1\right) \cdot \left(n+1\right)-1\right]}

S = n = 1 n n ! [ ( n + 1 ) 2 1 ] S = n = 1 n n ! n ( n + 2 ) \displaystyle \implies S= \sum_{n=1}^{\infty} \frac{n}{n! \cdot \left[ \left(n+1\right)^{2}-1\right]} \displaystyle \implies S= \sum_{n=1}^{\infty} \frac{n}{n! \cdot n \cdot \left(n+2\right)}

S = n = 1 1 n ! ( n + 2 ) S = n = 1 1 ( n + 2 ) ! ( n + 1 ) S = n = 1 ( n + 1 ) ( n + 2 ) ! \displaystyle \implies S= \sum_{n=1}^{\infty} \frac{1}{n! \cdot \left(n+2\right)} \implies S= \sum_{n=1}^{\infty} \frac{1}{\frac{\left(n+2\right)!}{\left(n+1\right)}} \implies S= \sum_{n=1}^{\infty} \frac{\left(n+1\right)}{\left(n+2\right)!}

S = n = 2 n ( n + 1 ) ! \displaystyle \implies S= \sum_{n=2}^{\infty} \frac{n}{\left(n+1\right)!}

The last sum is pretty easily known to have its value convergent to one, when its first value of the variable is one. As we removed the first term 1 ( 1 + 1 ) ! = 1 2 \displaystyle \frac{1}{\left(1+1\right)!}=\frac{1}{2} , this sum converges to S = 1 2 \displaystyle \boxed{S= \frac{1}{2}} .

One could easily transform n ( n + 1 ) ! \displaystyle \frac{n}{\left(n+1\right)!} into 1 n ! 1 ( n + 1 ) ! \displaystyle \frac{1}{n!}-\frac{1}{\left(n+1\right)!} .

As a little algebra exercise, we can note that:

n ( n + 1 ) ! = n + 1 1 ( n + 1 ) ! = n + 1 ( n + 1 ) ! 1 ( n + 1 ) ! = 1 n ! 1 ( n + 1 ) ! \displaystyle \frac{n}{\left(n+1\right)!}=\frac{n+1-1}{\left(n+1\right)!}=\frac{n+1}{\left(n+1\right)!}-\frac{1}{\left(n+1\right)!}=\frac{1}{n!}-\frac{1}{\left(n+1\right)!} .

The last expression is how each term can be expressed. So, if we add it up infinite terms like this, they would cancel each other in a telescoping series, except for the first and the last terms on the sum. The first is one and the last converges to zero, and this makes the value of the sum we've saw become one.

Mikael Marcondes - 6 years, 2 months ago

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Your method is easier but you need to subtract the first term = 1/2 (which is obtained by putting n=1) as this is not a part of the original series given. Hence, the sum becomes half.

Snehil Snehil - 6 years, 1 month ago

One can use taylor series of e x {e}^{x} and then some integration.

Kartik Sharma - 6 years, 2 months ago

How did you do this?

i = 1 1 n ! ( n + 2 ) = i = 1 1 ( n + 2 ) ! ( n + 1 ) \sum _{ i=1 }^{ \infty }{ \frac { 1 }{ n!\cdot (n+2) } } =\quad \sum _{ i=1 }^{ \infty }{ \frac { 1 }{ \frac { (n+2)! }{ (n+1) } } }

Siddharth Jayshankar - 6 years, 2 months ago

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i=1 changes to i=2

Chris Arsenault - 4 years, 1 month ago

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Oops. That's the next step. n+1 is missing from (n+2)!

Chris Arsenault - 4 years, 1 month ago
Otto Bretscher
Apr 14, 2015

n = 3 n 2 n ! ( n 1 ) ! ( n 2 ) ! \sum_{n=3}^{\infty}\frac{n-2}{n!-(n-1)!-(n-2)!} = n = 3 n 2 ( n ( n 1 ) ( n 1 ) 1 ) ( n 2 ) ! = \sum_{n=3}^{\infty}\frac{n-2}{(n(n-1)-(n-1)-1)(n-2)!} = n = 3 1 n ( n 2 ) ! =\sum_{n=3}^{\infty}\frac{1}{n(n-2)!} = n = 3 n 1 n ! =\sum_{n=3}^{\infty}\frac{n-1}{n!} = n = 3 ( 1 ( n 1 ) ! 1 n ! ) =\sum_{n=3}^{\infty}(\frac{1}{(n-1)!}-\frac{1}{n!}) = 1 2 =\frac{1}{2} , a telescoping sum.

Gamal Sultan
Apr 15, 2015

The general term =

n/[(n + 2)! - (n + 1)! - n!] = n/n![(n + 2)(n + 1) - (n + 1) - 1] = 1/n!(n + 2)

= (n + 1)/n!(n + 1)(n +2) = (n +1)/(n + 2)! = [(n + 2) - 1]/(n + 2)!

= 1/(n + 1)! - 1/(n + 2)!

So the given series = 1/2! - 1/3! + 1/3! - 1/4! + 1/4! - 1/5! + 1/5! - ...... = 1/2! = 1/2

Omer Raza
Apr 14, 2015

I get 1/2 .... Looking at denominator of 2nd term 4!-3!-2!=4(3!)-3!-2!=(3)3!-2!=(3^2-1)2! and taking a look at numerator we see tht it,s 2 and den (3^2-1)2!=3+1)((3-1) (2!) hence 3-1 or 2 is cancelled .and we get 1/(4 2!) and we get the same pattern for every den like for third 1/(5 3!)... Looking at the 2nd refined form multiplying num by 4and div by 4 gives = 3/5! so first term is 2/3! second 3/4! third 4/5! and so on ..Seeing 1 and 2nd term (1st)2/3!=(3-1)/3!=1/2!-1/3! 2nd 3/4!=(4-1)4!=+1/3!-1/4! so we get 1/2!-1/3!+1/3!-1/4! for1st 2 terms =1/2!-1/4! and now breaking 3rd into its constituents the smae way wud cancel -1/4! by adding +1/4! and so on ..We,ll get to infinty the result 1/2!-1/r! where is infintely large hence 1/r! =0 and so answer =1/2

Muhammad Ardivan
Apr 5, 2015

From that series, We can change n/((n+2)!-(n+1)!-(n)! -----> 1/((n+2)(n)!)

sum_(n=1)^infinity 1/((n+2) n!) = 1/2

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