Riemann Sum?

Calculus Level 5

Evaluate the limit

lim n k = 1 n 2 n n 2 + k 2 \lim_{n\rightarrow\infty}\sum_{k=1}^{n^2}\frac{n}{n^2+k^2}


The answer is 1.5707963.

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1 solution

Brian Moehring
Jul 31, 2018

It can be treated as a Riemann sum, but you have to be a little careful due to the upper limit on the sum not being a scalar multiple of n n . The way I like treating it, however, is by dominated convergence, as this allows us to completely ignore this complication.

That is, first define the functions f ( x ) = 1 1 + x 2 , f n ( x ) = { f ( n x n ) 0 < x n 0 otherwise \begin{aligned} f(x) = \frac{1}{1+x^2} &, & f_n(x) = \begin{cases} f\left(\frac{\lceil{nx}\rceil}{n}\right) & 0 < x \leq n \\ 0 & \text{otherwise}\end{cases} \end{aligned}

and then by simply writing out the integral of f n f_n and applying the Dominated Convergence Theorem (note 0 f n f = lim n f n on ( 0 , ) ), \displaystyle\text{(note }0 \leq f_n \leq f = \lim_{n\to\infty} f_n\text{ on } (0,\infty) \text{),} lim n k = 1 n 2 n n 2 + k 2 = lim n 0 f n ( x ) d x = 0 f ( x ) d x = arctan ( x ) 0 = 1 2 π \lim_{n\to\infty} \sum_{k=1}^{n^2} \frac{n}{n^2+k^2} = \lim_{n\to\infty} \int_0^\infty f_n(x)\,dx = \int_0^\infty f(x)\,dx = \arctan(x)\Big|_0^\infty = \boxed{\frac{1}{2}\pi}

Thanks for the advice.

Chew-Seong Cheong - 2 years, 10 months ago

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