Three Same Variables in a Typical Element

Calculus Level 3

x = 1 x x x = ? \sum_{x=1}^\infty \frac{x}{x^{x}}=? What is the sum written to the nearest hundred-thousandths?


The answer is 1.62847.

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1 solution

Brian Moehring
Aug 3, 2018

Note that for N 2 N\geq 2 , 0 n = N + 1 n n n n = N + 1 1 N n 1 = 1 N N 1 ( N 1 ) 2 N N 0 \leq \sum_{n=N+1}^\infty \frac{n}{n^n} \leq \sum_{n=N+1}^\infty \frac{1}{N^{n-1}} = \frac{1}{N^{N-1}(N-1)} \leq \frac{2}{N^N} so that in particular, for N 2 N \geq 2 , n = 1 N n n n n = 1 n n n 2 N N + n = 1 N n n n \sum_{n=1}^N \frac{n}{n^n} \leq \sum_{n=1}^\infty \frac{n}{n^n} \leq \frac{2}{N^N} + \sum_{n=1}^N \frac{n}{n^n} which means our estimate of the series can be n = 1 N n n n + 1 N N \sum_{n=1}^N \frac{n}{n^n} + \frac{1}{N^N} which has an error of at most 1 N N \frac{1}{N^N} . Therefore, to be sure about our estimate, we would need N N to at least satisfy 1 N N < 1 100000 N 7 \frac{1}{N^N} < \frac{1}{100000} \iff N \geq 7

Therefore, for N = 7 , N=7, we compute n = 1 7 n n n = 1.62847321 n = 1 7 n n n + 2 7 7 = 1.62847564 \sum_{n=1}^7 \frac{n}{n^n} = 1.62847321 \\ \sum_{n=1}^7 \frac{n}{n^n} + \frac{2}{7^7} = 1.62847564 which unfortunately isn't precise enough to know how it rounds to the requested precision, so we do one more term, with N = 8 , N=8, to compute n = 1 8 n n n = 1.62847369 n = 1 8 n n n + 2 8 8 = 1.62847381 \sum_{n=1}^8 \frac{n}{n^n} = 1.62847369 \\ \sum_{n=1}^8 \frac{n}{n^n} + \frac{2}{8^8} = 1.62847381 which works!

That is, we know that 1.62847369 n = 1 n n n 1.62847381 1.62847369 \leq \sum_{n=1}^\infty \frac{n}{n^n} \leq 1.62847381 so that in particular, it rounds to the nearest millionth as n = 1 n n n 1.628474 \sum_{n=1}^\infty \frac{n}{n^n} \approx \boxed{1.628474}

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