A curious integral involving the fractional part function

Calculus Level 4

0 1 { 1 x } 2 d x = ? \large \int_0^1\left\{\dfrac1x\right\}^2 \, dx = \, ?

Give your answer to 4 decimal places.

Notation : { } \{ \cdot \} denotes the fractional part function .


The answer is 0.2606.

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2 solutions

Chew-Seong Cheong
Aug 18, 2016

I = 0 1 { 1 x } 2 d x = k = 1 1 k + 1 1 k ( 1 x k ) 2 d x = k = 1 1 k + 1 1 k ( 1 x 2 2 k x + k 2 ) d x = k = 1 [ 1 x 2 k ln x + k 2 x ] 1 k + 1 1 k = k = 1 [ k + k + 1 2 k ( ln 1 k ln 1 k + 1 ) + k 2 ( 1 k 1 k + 1 ) ] = k = 1 [ 2 k + 1 k + 1 2 k ln k + 1 k ] 0.259005 \begin{aligned} I & = \int_0^1 \left \{ \frac 1x \right \}^2 dx \\& = \sum_{k=1}^\infty \int_{\frac 1{k+1}}^\frac 1k \left(\frac 1x - k \right)^2 dx \\ & = \sum_{k=1}^\infty \int_{\frac 1{k+1}}^\frac 1k \left(\frac 1{x^2} - \frac {2k}x + k^2 \right) dx \\ & = \sum_{k=1}^\infty \left[-\frac 1{x} - 2k \ln x + k^2 x \right]_{\frac 1{k+1}}^\frac 1k \\ & = \sum_{k=1}^\infty \left[-k+k+1 - 2k \left(\ln \frac 1k - \ln \frac 1{k+1}\right) + k^2 \left(\frac 1k - \frac 1{k+1} \right) \right] \\ & = \sum_{k=1}^\infty \left[\frac {2k+1}{k+1} - 2k \ln \frac {k+1}k \right] \\ & \approx 0.259005 \end{aligned}

Actually, it can be simplified a little further. Only π \pi and γ \gamma , apart from integers, should appear in the closed form.

Diego G - 4 years, 10 months ago

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Thanks, I know, I was trying to get there. But I want to post first and it was passed midnight here.

Chew-Seong Cheong - 4 years, 10 months ago

Then this question must be of level 4 then. I reached upto the last step but didn't knew about euler constant. Isn't it a higher order skill?

Aakash Khandelwal - 4 years, 9 months ago
Wei Chen
Aug 22, 2016

To finish what Chew-Seong has done, the closed form of the answer should be

ln ( 2 π ) γ 1 \ln(2\pi)-\gamma-1

Where γ \gamma is the Euler-Mascheroni constant.

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