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analysis

Name: Anonymous 2008-11-03 13:35

is the infinite series (1/4 + (-1)^n)/n absolutely convergent?

Name: Anonymous 2008-11-03 14:03

It's late, so I might have made an error somewhere.

\sum_{n=1}^{\infty} \frac{\frac{1}{4} + (-1)^n}{n}
= \sum_{n=1}^{\infty} \left(\frac{1}{4n} + \frac{(-1)^n}{n} \right)
= \frac{1}{4} \sum_{n=1}^{\infty} \left(\frac{1}{n} + \frac{(-1)^n}{n} \right)
= \frac{1}{4} \sum_{n=1}^{\infty} \frac{(-1)^n + 1}{n}


If n is equal => (-1)^n + 1 = 2.
If n is odd => (-1)^n + 1 = 0.

Therefore, we can write:


= \frac{1}{4} \sum_{n=1}^{\infty} \frac{2}{2n} = \frac{1}{4} \sum_{n=1}^{\infty} \frac{1}{n}


Which is the harmonic series. The harmonic series is divergent.

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