Limit of another discontinuous function

Calculus Level 3

Find the value of lim x k = x 2 x 1 k \displaystyle \lim_{x\rightarrow \infty}\sum_{k=\lfloor{x}\rfloor}^{\lfloor{2x}\rfloor}\frac{1}{k} .


The answer is 0.693147181.

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2 solutions

Michael Mendrin
Sep 1, 2018

This sum is the same as

HarmonicNumber ( 2 x ) (2x) - HarmonicNumber ( x 1 (x-1 )

where

HarmonicNumber ( x ) = k = 1 x 1 k (x)= \displaystyle \sum _{ k=1 }^{ x }{ \dfrac { 1 }{ k } } .

For large x x ,

HarmonicNumber ( x ) = L o g ( x ) + γ (x)=Log(x)+\gamma

so the limit as x x \rightarrow \infty for this sum is ( L o g ( 2 x ) + γ ) ( L o g ( x 1 ) + γ ) = L o g ( 2 ) (Log(2x)+\gamma)-(Log(x-1)+\gamma)=Log(2)

γ \gamma is the Euler-Mascheroni constant.

Jason Carrier
Sep 13, 2018

First, since x is going to infinity, the floor functions can be basically ignored. Then, I made a not-so rigorous jump: I replaced the sum with an integral, since the value is very similar. At infinity, it turns out to be the same.

Then, I simply solved: lim x x 2 x 1 k d k = lim x ( l n ( 2 x ) l n ( x ) ) = l n ( 2 ) \lim_{x\to\infty}\int_x^{2x} \frac{1}{k}\mathrm{d}k = \lim_{x\to\infty}(\mathrm{ln}(2x)-\mathrm{ln}(x)) = \mathrm{ln}(2)

So, the answer is ln 2, or . 693 \boxed{.693}

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