Square roots galore

Algebra Level 2

Evaluate the following sum:

1 1 × 2 + 2 × 1 + 1 2 × 3 + 3 × 2 + . . . + 1 9999 × 10000 + 10000 × 9999 . \frac{1}{ \sqrt1 \times 2+\sqrt2 \times 1} + \frac{1}{ \sqrt2 \times 3+\sqrt3 \times 2}+ ...+\frac{1}{ \sqrt{9999} \times 10000+\sqrt{10000} \times 9999}.


The answer is 0.99.

This section requires Javascript.
You are seeing this because something didn't load right. We suggest you, (a) try refreshing the page, (b) enabling javascript if it is disabled on your browser and, finally, (c) loading the non-javascript version of this page . We're sorry about the hassle.

5 solutions

Bogdan Simeonov
Apr 4, 2014

Let a n = 1 ( n + 1 ) n + n n + 1 \displaystyle a_n=\frac{1}{(n+1)\sqrt{n}+n\sqrt{n+1}} . Then the sum we are looking for is equal to n = 1 9999 a n \displaystyle\sum_{n=1}^{9999} a_n . We can express a n a_n as 1 n . ( n + 1 ) . ( n + n + 1 ) \frac{1}{\sqrt{n.(n+1)}.(\sqrt{n}+\sqrt{n+1})} .Then, multiplying the numerator and denominator by n + 1 n \sqrt{n+1}-\sqrt{n} we would get a n = n + 1 n n . ( n + 1 ) = 1 n 1 n + 1 a_n= \frac{\sqrt{n+1}-\sqrt{n}}{\sqrt{n.(n+1)}}=\frac{1}{\sqrt{n}}-\frac{1}{\sqrt{n+1}} .So our series telescopes and our answer is 1 1 10000 = 0 , 99 1-\frac{1}{\sqrt{10000}}=\boxed {0,99}

P.S.:Thank you Calvin for correcting the problem and adding a picture to it :D

Note that when you type 1 . 2 \sqrt{ 1} . 2 , the "." is extremely misleading. While there is slight context that it should not be interpreted as a decimal point, some people may think it is 1.2 \sqrt{1.2} . It is better to use \cdot or \times, which gives \cdot or × \times respectively.

Calvin Lin Staff - 7 years, 2 months ago

Log in to reply

The \cdot still looks too much like a period. To illustrate that it is actually not a period, I put it in between two numbers: 1 2 1\cdot 2

Daniel Liu - 7 years, 2 months ago

Log in to reply

If you are referring to my comment, those are actually periods, to reinforce my point. I didn't show \cdot \cdot , because I generally prefer using \times ( × \times ), and I updated the problem statement accordingly (but not his solution).

Calvin Lin Staff - 7 years, 2 months ago

Great !

Aldo Meyolla - 7 years, 2 months ago

Lol I got 99

Sugam Bhandari - 7 years, 2 months ago

good explanation

Ravi Bendi - 7 years, 1 month ago

great

Dipayan Saha - 7 years, 1 month ago

who invent maths?

Abdul Rafay - 7 years, 1 month ago

0.99

Pratap Singh - 7 years, 1 month ago

Why u subtracting from 1...??

kundan singh - 7 years, 1 month ago

Why subtracting from 1??.

kundan singh - 7 years, 1 month ago
Ryan Putong
Dec 29, 2014

Hriday Saikia
Apr 10, 2014

WRITE BACK THE EQUATION AS IN (1/K) +(1/(K+1)) FORM TO MAKE IT TELESCOPING SERIES, AND SUMMATION OF TELESCOPING SERIES IS UNITY

Achraf Laamoum
Dec 29, 2014

Using Python

1
2
3
4
5
from math import sqrt
sum = 0
for i in range(1,10000) :
       sum += 1/ (sqrt(i)*(i+1)+sqrt(i+1)*i)
print(sum)

A Former Brilliant Member - 8 months, 3 weeks ago
Ravi Bendi
Apr 14, 2014

take first term which is equal to 1/sqrt of 1- 1/sqrt of 2 , same as second term is 1/sqrt of 2-1/sqrt of 3 and so on. therefore finally we get 1/sqrt of 1-1/sqrt of 10000= 0.99

0 pending reports

×

Problem Loading...

Note Loading...

Set Loading...