Strange Factorial Sum

Calculus Level 3

Let S = 1 4 ! + 1 5 ! + 1 8 ! + 1 9 ! + + 1 ( 4 n ) ! + 1 ( 4 n + 1 ) ! + S=\dfrac{1}{4!}+\dfrac{1}{5!}+\dfrac{1}{8!}+\dfrac{1}{9!}+\cdots +\dfrac{1}{(4n)!}+\dfrac{1}{(4n+1)!}+\cdots

Find the value of 1000 S \lfloor 1000S\rfloor

Details and Assumptions

Please provide the exact value in your solution.


The answer is 50.

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.

3 solutions

Daniel Liu
Jun 13, 2014

[This is not a full solution because I'm too lazy to write one ^_^]

We see that the taylor polynomial of sin x + cos x + e x 2 = 1 + x + x 4 4 ! + x 5 5 ! + x 8 8 ! + \dfrac{\sin x+\cos x+e^x}{2}=1+x+\dfrac{x^4}{4!}+\dfrac{x^5}{5!}+\dfrac{x^8}{8!}+\cdots

Plugging in x = 1 x=1 gives sin 1 + cos 1 + e 1 2 = 2 + 1 4 ! + 1 5 ! + 1 8 ! + \dfrac{\sin 1+\cos 1+e^1}{2}=2+\dfrac{1}{4!}+\dfrac{1}{5!}+\dfrac{1}{8!}+\cdots

We subtract 2 2 to get the sum we are looking for.

Thus the exact value is S = sin 1 + cos 1 + e 2 2 S= \dfrac{\sin 1+\cos 1+e}{2}-2

where we are working in radians.

We have that S = sin 1 + cos 1 + e 2 2 0.050 S=\dfrac{\sin 1+\cos 1+e}{2}-2\approx 0.050 so 1000 S = 50 \lfloor 1000S\rfloor = \boxed{50}

This can be very easily found using partial sums, as even only 1 4 ! + 1 5 ! \dfrac{1}{4!}+\dfrac{1}{5!} gives S = 0.05 S=0.05 . However I hope that people will try to find the exact value ¨ \ddot\smile

S = 0.05002755956754079 S= \boxed{0.05002755956754079}

@Daniel Liu - If this is not a full solution, then what is the full solution? If you give me a clue, I will write out one.

Agnishom Chattopadhyay - 6 years, 12 months ago

Log in to reply

I consider a full solution one with motivation on how you solved it. This prevents anyone from doing anything like partial sums, or Wolfram Alpha-ing, or anything like that.

Daniel Liu - 6 years, 12 months ago

Yes, this question is manipulation of power series, although you first Taylor expansion needs exponents on the powers of x x . Obviously the expansion of sin x + cos x + e x 2 \dfrac{\sin x+\cos x+e^x}{2} wouldn't be linear.

Trevor B. - 6 years, 12 months ago

Log in to reply

Whoops, forgot the exponents :P

Daniel Liu - 6 years, 12 months ago

i got 51 :P

Hafizh Ahsan Permana - 6 years, 12 months ago
Théo Leblanc
Sep 20, 2019

A classical way to extract some terms of the exponantial series is to use an n t h n^{th} root of unity which is not 1:

Let ω = e i 2 π n \omega = e^{i \frac{2\pi}{n} }

Then,

e x + e ω x + + e ω n 1 x = k = 0 + x k 1 + ω k + ω 2 k + + ω ( n 1 ) k k ! e^x + e^{\omega x} + \cdots + e^{\omega^{n-1} x} = \displaystyle\sum_{k=0}^{+\infty} x^k\dfrac{1+\omega^k+\omega^{2k}+\cdots+\omega^{(n-1)k}}{k!}

But 1 + ω k + ω 2 k + + ω ( n 1 ) k = { n if k m o d n = 0 0 else 1+\omega^k+\omega^{2k}+\cdots+\omega^{(n-1)k} = \begin{cases} n \quad \text{if} \quad k\mod n=0 \\ 0 \quad \text{else} \end{cases}

So k = 0 + x n k ( n k ) ! = e x + e ω x + + e ω n 1 x n \quad \displaystyle\sum_{k=0}^{+\infty} \dfrac{x^{nk}}{(nk)!} = \dfrac{e^x + e^{\omega x} + \cdots + e^{\omega^{n-1} x}}{n}

You can integrate to get k = 0 + x n k + 1 ( n k + 1 ) ! \displaystyle\sum_{k=0}^{+\infty} \dfrac{x^{nk+1}}{(nk+1)!}

Applying this to n = 4 n=4 , we get k = 1 + x 4 k ( 4 k ) ! + x 4 k + 1 ( 4 k + 1 ) ! = cos ( x ) + sin ( x ) + e x 2 1 x \displaystyle\sum_{k=1}^{+\infty} \dfrac{x^{4k}}{(4k)!} + \dfrac{x^{4k+1}}{(4k+1)!} = \dfrac{\cos(x)+\sin(x)+e^x}{2}-1-x

So the answer is cos ( 1 ) + sin ( 1 ) + e 4 2 \boxed{\dfrac{\cos(1)+\sin(1)+e-4}{2}}

Looking at the series, we group in a pair of two items., first two is n=1, second two n=2, third two n=3 gives 1 12 ! + 1 13 ! \frac{1}{12!} + \frac{1}{13!}
1000 times the floor of these would be 0 + 0
Similarly all the rest will be zeros.
Thus the sum of the first given four items and its floor value is found to be 50 \boxed {50}


0 pending reports

×

Problem Loading...

Note Loading...

Set Loading...