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Lecture

Convergence Criteria and Alternating Series

In course

MATH-101(f): Analysis I

Étudier les concepts fondamentaux d'analyse et le calcul différentiel et intégral des fonctions réelles d'une variable. ...

Description

This lecture covers convergence criteria for series, including the use of general terms and alternating series. It explains how to calculate series using Alambert's and Lausup's criteria, concluding with examples of series convergence depending on parameters.

Instructor

David Valentin Strütt

Official source

Related concepts (32)

Convergent series

In mathematics, a series is the sum of the terms of an infinite sequence of numbers. More precisely, an infinite sequence defines a series S that is denoted The nth partial sum Sn is the sum of the first n terms of the sequence; that is, A series is convergent (or converges) if the sequence of its partial sums tends to a limit; that means that, when adding one after the other in the order given by the indices, one gets partial sums that become closer and closer to a given number.

Alternating series

In mathematics, an alternating series is an infinite series of the form or with an > 0 for all n. The signs of the general terms alternate between positive and negative. Like any series, an alternating series converges if and only if the associated sequence of partial sums converges. The geometric series 1/2 − 1/4 + 1/8 − 1/16 + ⋯ sums to 1/3. The alternating harmonic series has a finite sum but the harmonic series does not.

Series (mathematics)

In mathematics, a series is, roughly speaking, the operation of adding infinitely many quantities, one after the other, to a given starting quantity. The study of series is a major part of calculus and its generalization, mathematical analysis. Series are used in most areas of mathematics, even for studying finite structures (such as in combinatorics) through generating functions. In addition to their ubiquity in mathematics, infinite series are also widely used in other quantitative disciplines such as physics, computer science, statistics and finance.

Absolute convergence

In mathematics, an infinite series of numbers is said to converge absolutely (or to be absolutely convergent) if the sum of the absolute values of the summands is finite. More precisely, a real or complex series is said to converge absolutely if for some real number Similarly, an improper integral of a function, is said to converge absolutely if the integral of the absolute value of the integrand is finite—that is, if Absolute convergence is important for the study of infinite series because its definition is strong enough to have properties of finite sums that not all convergent series possess – a convergent series that is not absolutely convergent is called conditionally convergent, while absolutely convergent series behave "nicely".

Alternating series test

In mathematical analysis, the alternating series test is the method used to show that an alternating series is convergent when its terms (1) decrease in absolute value, and (2) approach zero in the limit. The test was used by Gottfried Leibniz and is sometimes known as Leibniz's test, Leibniz's rule, or the Leibniz criterion. The test is only sufficient, not necessary, so some convergent alternating series may fail the first part of the test. A series of the form where either all an are positive or all an are negative, is called an alternating series.

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