Can You Break This Down?

Algebra Level 3

n = 1 1 n 2 + 3 n + 2 = ? \large \displaystyle \sum_{n = 1}^{\infty} \dfrac {1}{n^2 + 3n + 2} = \ ?


The answer is 0.5.

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10 solutions

1 n 2 + 3 n + 2 = 1 n + 1 1 n + 2 \frac{1}{n^{2}+3n+2} = \frac{1}{n+1} - \frac{1}{n+2}

now for n = 1,2,3,4,.......

n = 1 1 n + 1 = 1 2 + 1 3 + 1 4 + . . . . . . \sum_{n=1}^{\infty} \frac{1}{n+1} = \frac{1}{2} + \frac{1}{3} + \frac{1}{4} + ......

similarly,

n = 1 1 n + 2 = 1 3 + 1 4 + 1 5 + . . . . . . \sum_{n=1}^{\infty} \frac{1}{n+2} = \frac{1}{3} + \frac{1}{4} + \frac{1}{5} + ......

therefore,

n = 1 1 n 2 + 3 n + 2 = n = 1 1 n + 1 n = 1 1 n + 2 = 1 2 \sum_{n=1}^{\infty} \frac{1}{n^{2}+3n+2} = \sum_{n=1}^{\infty} \frac{1}{n+1} - \sum_{n=1}^{\infty} \frac{1}{n+2} = \frac{1}{2}

I dont understand why this solution has so much more upvotes than the next ones when they are practically the same.

Julian Poon - 6 years, 6 months ago

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It was... a day early lol...

Jeffrey Li - 5 years, 9 months ago

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Getting pulled back into a comment I made 1 year earlier... :P

Julian Poon - 5 years, 9 months ago

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@Julian Poon lol thats how it works !!

Syed Baqir - 5 years, 9 months ago

LOL! :P \quad\quad\quad

Nihar Mahajan - 5 years, 2 months ago

People are too lazy to scroll down. I am a teen so I don't fall into the "people" category! :P

Akhash Raja Raam - 4 years, 11 months ago

What about the last term da!!

Adarsh pankaj - 5 years, 4 months ago

Can you please explain the last step??

Ritesh G - 5 years, 3 months ago

This is a very good solution, very clear, thanks!

Ijal Shrestha - 1 year, 1 month ago

i dont understand in 2n=d step how to come 1 over n +1

Aisha Butt - 6 years, 6 months ago

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The technique is called "Partial Fraction Decomposition". It is often used in integrating rational functions and can be found in the index of most modern calculus texts (or of course google). For this particular case (textbooks typically present the entire topic in terms of 4 cases) you would set up as follows:

1 ( n + 1 ) ( n + 2 ) = A n + 1 + B n + 2 \frac{1}{(n+1)(n+2)} = \frac{A}{n+1} + \frac{B}{n+2}

Now mult both sides by the LCD, yielding:

1 = A(n+2) + B(n+1)

Now to find A substitute n = -1 & solve. Similarly, to find B sub in n = -2 & solve. Note, these subsitutions are the zeros of the factors of the LCD. These two steps yield:

A = 1 & B = -1

Thus: 1 ( n + 1 ) ( n + 2 ) = 1 n + 1 1 n + 2 \frac{1}{(n+1)(n+2)} = \frac{1}{n+1} - \frac{1}{n+2}

Douglas Furman - 6 years, 5 months ago

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You can also use hide and seek method instead .

Syed Baqir - 5 years, 9 months ago

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@Syed Baqir Yes, the hide and seek (or cover up) method is quicker with less writting, but often harder for someone to understand why it works. So for understanding purposes it's best to show the longer method (of multy both side by the LCD) and then later show the hide and seek method as a more efficient method.

Douglas Furman - 5 years, 8 months ago

I just loved it.. :)

Optimum Rakib - 5 years, 10 months ago

Very elegantly done!

Aran Pasupathy - 6 years, 4 months ago

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Not really, taking the limit is more elegant than adding two diverging series.

Valentin Michelet - 6 years, 3 months ago

You may use \infty for typing infinity in latex. I have edited your solution.

Pranjal Jain - 6 years, 3 months ago
Pratik Shastri
Nov 28, 2014

S = lim N n = 1 N 1 n 2 + 3 n + 2 = lim N n = 1 N 1 ( n + 1 ) ( n + 2 ) = lim N n = 1 N 1 n + 1 1 n + 2 = lim N 1 2 1 N + 2 = 1 2 \begin{aligned} S &=\lim_{N \rightarrow \infty} \sum_{n=1}^{N}\dfrac{1}{n^2+3n+2}\\ &=\lim_{N \rightarrow \infty} \sum_{n=1}^{N}\dfrac{1}{(n+1)(n+2)}\\ &=\lim_{N \rightarrow \infty} \sum_{n=1}^{N}\dfrac{1}{n+1}-\dfrac{1}{n+2}\\ &=\lim_{N \to \infty} \dfrac{1}{2}-\dfrac{1}{N+2}=\boxed{\dfrac{1}{2}} \end{aligned}

Can you explain me the last line?

Mayank Kunwar - 5 years, 11 months ago

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In response to Mayank Kunwar: The limit of 1/(N+2) as N approaches to infinity is zero; that is, as N gets bigger and bigger, 1/(N+2) approaches to zero. Thus, 1/2 - 0 = 1/2.

Abe Morillo - 5 years, 9 months ago

Its actually the same solution like the first one... but another way to write it... Look at first solution, all terms cancel out except for first and last one... since first term=1/2 and last term=1/N+2, the last line is written as such.

The only difference here really is that he took the limit for the last term... (Please correct me if wrong, i'm obviously a noob to math.)

Jeffrey Li - 5 years, 9 months ago

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Thank you.

Mayank Kunwar - 5 years, 9 months ago

why we can do limit in this particular question?

Loki Come - 6 years, 6 months ago

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To be on the safer side, I like to take the limit. This problem isn't very tough to handle but others could be. For example, in the above solution, n = 1 1 n + 1 \displaystyle\sum_{n=1}^{\infty} \dfrac{1}{n+1} is diverging and n = 1 1 n + 2 \displaystyle\sum_{n=1}^{\infty} \dfrac{1}{n+2} is also diverging. I don't like to play with diverging series that way.

Pratik Shastri - 6 years, 6 months ago

Can you explain me how can you transform 1/((n+1)(n+2)) into 1/(n+1)-1/(n+2)? I can't see it.

Jordi Pomada - 6 years, 5 months ago

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See my reply to Aisha, above.

Douglas Furman - 6 years, 5 months ago

n = 1 1 n 2 + 3 n + 2 = n = 1 ( 1 n + 1 1 n + 2 ) 1 2 1 3 + 1 3 1 4 + 1 4 + \color{#3D99F6}{\sum^{\infty}_{n=1}\frac{1}{n^2+3n+2}=\sum^{\infty}_{n=1}\left(\frac{1}{n+1}-\frac{1}{n+2}\right)\\ \frac{1}{2}-\frac{1}{3}+\frac{1}{3}-\frac{1}{4}+\frac{1}{4}+\dotsm} We observe that all the terms after 1 2 \color{#D61F06}{\frac{1}{2}} cancel out so the answer is 1 2 \color{#69047E}{\boxed{\dfrac{1}{2}}}

Never mind but when same solution is there, you don't need to post it again!

Pranjal Jain - 6 years, 6 months ago

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@Pranjal Jain Most of the solutions are the same.

Abdur Rehman Zahid - 6 years, 3 months ago

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Yeah, all of them need not be posted. Although its fine.

Pranjal Jain - 6 years, 3 months ago
Chew-Seong Cheong
Nov 28, 2014

We note that:

n = 1 1 n 2 + 3 n + 2 = n = 1 1 ( n + 1 ) ( n + 2 ) = n = 1 ( 1 n + 1 1 n + 2 ) \sum _{n=1} ^\infty \dfrac {1}{n^2+3n+2} = \sum _{n=1} ^\infty \dfrac {1}{(n+1)(n+2)} = \sum _{n=1} ^\infty \left( \dfrac {1}{n+1} - \dfrac {1}{n+2} \right) = ( 1 2 1 3 ) + ( 1 3 1 4 ) + ( 1 4 1 5 ) + . . . = 1 2 = \left( \frac {1}{2} - \frac {1}{3} \right) + \left( \frac {1}{3} - \frac {1}{4} \right) + \left( \frac {1}{4} - \frac {1}{5} \right) + ... = \boxed {\dfrac {1}{2}}

Felipe Perestrelo
Aug 28, 2015

A different approach...

n = 1 1 n 2 + 3 n + 2 = n = 1 1 ( n + 1 ) ( n + 2 ) = n = 2 1 n ( n + 1 ) = \displaystyle\sum_{n=1}^{\infty} \frac{1}{n^{2} + 3n + 2} = \displaystyle\sum_{n=1}^{\infty} \frac{1}{(n+1)(n+2)} = \displaystyle\sum_{n=2}^{\infty} \frac{1}{n(n+1)} = = n = 1 1 n ( n + 1 ) n = 1 1 1 n ( n + 1 ) = 1 1 2 = 1 2 \displaystyle=\sum_{n=1}^{\infty} \frac{1}{n(n+1)} - \displaystyle\sum_{n=1}^{1} \frac{1}{n(n+1)} = 1 - \frac{1}{2} = \frac{1}{2}

By the way, I got n = 1 1 n ( n + 1 ) = 1 \displaystyle\sum_{n=1}^{\infty} \frac{1}{n(n+1)} = 1 from the Brilliant Telescoping Series material that was linked on the problem description.

Subh Mandal
Jan 19, 2016

Tuccha hai

Allen Chen
Aug 31, 2015

n = 1 1 n 2 + 3 n + 2 = 1 ( n + 1 ) ( n + 2 ) = 1 n + 1 1 n + 2 \sum_{n=1}^{\infty}\frac{1}{n^2+3n+2}=\frac{1}{(n+1)(n+2)}=\frac{1}{n+1}-\frac{1}{n+2}

Then, when we add all the terms together, the 2nd and 1st terms will cancel, leaving

1 2 1 + 1 = 1 2 \frac{1}{2}-\frac{1}{\infty+1}=\frac{1}{2}

Ramiel To-ong
Sep 1, 2016

very nice solution

Aditya Kushwaha
Feb 16, 2016

Telescopic sum rule

Amitya Sharma
Sep 23, 2015

I did It with vn method (nice method read about it people)

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