S = 1 ! 1 + 1 ! × 2 ! 1 × 2 + 1 ! × 2 ! × 3 ! 1 × 2 × 3 + …
S 0 = 1 ! 1 + 1 ! × 2 ! 1 + 1 ! × 2 ! × 3 ! 1 + …
If S − S 0 = A e B for integers A and B, find A + B
Write 0 . 5 if S diverges and S 0 converges.
Write 1 . 5 if S converges and S 0 diverges.
Write 2 . 5 if S and S 0 diverge.
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Great! For completeness, you should show that S and S 0 converges. Else you would be performing arithmetic on infinities.
Do you know how to calculate n = 1 ∑ ∞ ∏ k = 1 n k ! 1 ?
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No, I don't, despite some (futile) attempts to do so. It converges quite quickly, but an exact value remains elusive .... Any ideas?
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I was thinking about Engel expansion but couldn't get anywhere. I'm curious whether it's transcendental as well.
I think convergence can be shown by ratio test
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Or a simple comparison test on S 0 with the Taylor series for e 1 , which implies the convergence of S .
Won't this do?
S = 1 ! 1 + 1 ! × 2 ! 1 × 2 + 1 ! × 2 ! × 3 ! 1 × 2 × 3 + 1 ! × 2 ! × 3 ! × 4 ! 1 × 2 × 3 × 4 + . . . = 1 ! 1 + 1 ! × 2 ! 2 ! + 1 ! × 2 ! × 3 ! 3 ! + 1 ! × 2 ! × 3 ! × 4 ! 4 ! + . . . = 1 ! 1 + 1 ! 1 + 1 ! × 2 ! 1 + 1 ! × 2 ! × 3 ! 1 + . . . = 1 + S 0
⇒ S − S 0 = 1 = 1 × e 0 ⇒ A + B = 1 + 0 = 1
Nicely done on "pushing the terms". However, this solution is complete if the question had mentioned that S and S 0 are finite numbers.
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Note first that we can represent S as
S = n = 1 ∑ ∞ ∏ k = 0 n k ! n ! = n = 1 ∑ ∞ ∏ k = 0 n − 1 k ! 1 = 0 ! 1 + 1 ! 1 + 1 ! × 2 ! 1 + 1 ! × 2 ! × 3 ! 1 + . . . . ,
since 0 ! = 1 . Thus S and S 0 are identical except for the term 0 ! 1 = 1 , and so S − S 0 = 1 = 1 ∗ e 0 . Thus A + B = 1 + 0 = 1 .
For completeness, (at the suggestion of the Challenge Master), note that
n = 1 ∑ ∞ ∏ k = 1 n k ! 1 < n = 1 ∑ ∞ k ! 1 = e − 1 ,
and that the series of partial sums n = 1 ∑ N ∏ k = 1 n k ! 1 is monotonically increasing. Thus we can conclude that the series S 0 converges, and since S = 1 + S 0 we also know that S converges.