Watch Your steps!

Calculus Level 5

Define I n ( a ) = 0 t n a t d t \displaystyle I_n(a)=\int_0^\infty \mathrm t^na^{-t}\,\mathrm{d}t for positive real number a \displaystyle a and non-negative integer n \displaystyle n .

Then find n = 0 1 I n ( π ) \displaystyle \sum_{n=0}^{\infty} \frac{1}{I_n(\pi)} to two decimal places.

Try my other calculus challenges here


The answer is 3.6.

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.

1 solution

Firstly compute the closed form for I n ( a ) I_n(a) as follows. We use the fact that the integral looks similar to the Gamma Function and thus we want to manipulate it into it. I n ( a ) = 0 t n a t d t ( Let w = t log a ) = 1 ( log a ) n + 1 0 w n e t d w = Γ ( n + 1 ) ( log a ) n + 1 \begin{aligned} I_n(a)&=\int_0^\infty t^n a^{-t}\ \mathrm dt\\ (\text{Let}\ w=t \log a)\qquad &=\frac{1}{(\log a)^{n+1}}\int_0^\infty w^n e^{-t}\ \mathrm dw\\ &=\frac{\Gamma(n+1)}{(\log a)^{n+1}} \end{aligned}

Therefore we can evaluate the sum

n = 0 1 I n ( π ) = log π n = 0 ( log π ) n Γ ( n + 1 ) = log π n = 0 ( log π ) n n ! = π log π 3.596 \sum_{n=0}^\infty\frac1{I_n(\pi)}=\log\pi\ \sum_{n=0}^\infty\frac{(\log \pi)^n}{\Gamma(n+1)}=\log \pi\ \sum_{n=0}^\infty\frac{(\log \pi)^n}{n!}\\ =\pi \log \pi \approx\ \boxed{3.596} The last one being the Taylor series of e x = n = 0 x n n ! \displaystyle e^x = \sum_{n=0}^\infty \frac{x^n}{n!}

I think in the second step that e^-t should be e^w.

Trishit Chandra - 6 years, 3 months ago

Log in to reply

It should be e^-w instead of e^-t

Abdelhamid Saadi - 4 years, 10 months ago

Nice substitution. I've done it by parts. Not as nice. :( haha

Lucas Tell Marchi - 6 years, 4 months ago

Exactly as I did. Nice, clear solution.

Jake Lai - 6 years, 3 months ago

Exactly the same!

Kartik Sharma - 6 years, 2 months ago

0 pending reports

×

Problem Loading...

Note Loading...

Set Loading...