Infinite Multiple summation

Calculus Level 3

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

Find the value of the above infinite summation of summations up to three decimal place.

Bonus: Generalize the summation of n = 1 1 n ( n + 1 ) ( n + 2 ) ( n + p 1 ) ( n + p ) \displaystyle \sum_{n=1}^{\infty} \frac{1}{n(n+1)(n+2)\cdots (n+p-1)(n+p)} , where p p is positive integer.


The answer is 1.317.

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1 solution

Mark Hennings
Apr 10, 2018

Since 1 n ( n + 1 ) ( n + 2 ) ( n + p ) = 1 p [ 1 n ( n + 1 ) ( n + p 1 ) 1 ( n + 1 ) ( n + 2 ) ( n + p ) ] \frac{1}{n(n+1)(n+2)\cdots(n+p)} \; = \; \frac{1}{p}\left[ \frac{1}{n(n+1)\cdots(n+p-1)} - \frac{1}{(n+1)(n+2)\cdots(n+p)}\right] we deduce that n = 1 1 n ( n + 1 ) ( n + 2 ) ( n + p ) = 1 p × p ! p 1 \sum_{n=1}^\infty \frac{1}{n(n+1)(n+2)\cdots(n+p)} \; = \; \frac{1}{p \times p!} \hspace{2cm} p \ge 1 and hence the desired sum is p = 1 1 p × p ! = E i ( 1 ) γ = 0 1 e x 1 x d x = 0 1 e x ln x d x = 1.31790215 \sum_{p=1}^\infty \frac{1}{p \times p!} \; = \; \mathrm{Ei}(1) - \gamma \; = \; \int_0^1 \frac{e^x-1}{x}\,dx \; = \; -\int_0^1 e^x \ln x\,dx \; = \; \boxed{1.31790215} (the integral representations of the sum are standard results). To three decimal places, the answer should be 1.318 1.318 .

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