A nice approach to the alternating harmonic series

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Пікірлер: 64

  • @zairaner1489
    @zairaner1489 Жыл бұрын

    Very nice. I was very worried for a moment that we were reordering the summands of a not-absolutely converging series, but of course we just did that to calculated the limit of the partial sums, not actually change the partial sums.

  • @yunoewig3095

    @yunoewig3095

    Жыл бұрын

    His initial remark about the convergence of the series is essential. Because it is convergent, we know that the limit of the series equals the limit of the even partial sums. Otherwise we would not have calculated the limit of the series, but of a related series. Consider (1-1)+(1-1)+(1-1)+….=0. Without the parenthesis, the series diverges of course.

  • @zairaner1489

    @zairaner1489

    Жыл бұрын

    ​@@yunoewig3095 I am referencing the fact that reorderings of the alternating sum can converge to a different number (or even diverge).

  • @yunoewig3095

    @yunoewig3095

    Жыл бұрын

    @@zairaner1489 If all cycles in a permutation are finite, then the sum will be invariant under that permutation.

  • @justanotherman1114

    @justanotherman1114

    Жыл бұрын

    @@yunoewig3095 or equivalently, if the permutation only permutes finitely many terms, which makes sense since the tail is left undisturbed.

  • @yunoewig3095

    @yunoewig3095

    Жыл бұрын

    @@justanotherman1114 In fact, what he is doing here is not even a permutation, he is straight up splitting terms, so it's a more complex operation than that.

  • @themathsgeek8528
    @themathsgeek8528 Жыл бұрын

    This was very interesting!! Thanks Prof Penn

  • @jamesfortune243
    @jamesfortune243 Жыл бұрын

    After watching your videos for about a year I'm impressed with the quality and breadth of the material you present.

  • @chrstfer2452
    @chrstfer2452 Жыл бұрын

    Sweet video, very neat. Thanks professor! Got my sweatshirt yesterday too, its awesome. Thank you!

  • @sergeipetrov5572
    @sergeipetrov5572 Жыл бұрын

    Thank you, Michael! I hadn't predicted the way of solving up to the end of the calculation.

  • @TheMemesofDestruction
    @TheMemesofDestruction Жыл бұрын

    Love your explanations Professor!^.^

  • @manucitomx
    @manucitomx Жыл бұрын

    Thank you, professor!

  • @user-yp2hg6hz8n
    @user-yp2hg6hz8n Жыл бұрын

    Great video!

  • @minwithoutintroduction
    @minwithoutintroduction Жыл бұрын

    رائع كالعادة.شكرا لك أستاذ

  • @williamchurcher9645
    @williamchurcher9645 Жыл бұрын

    Another cute solution picks up where you split S_2N into a difference of harmonic series. Let H_N = 1/1 + 1/2 + ... + 1/N be the harmonic series. Then you had that S_2N = H_2N - H_N. If you know the fact that lim N->inf H_N - ln(N) = C (a constant), then S_2N = H_2N - H_N = ( H_2N - ln(2N) ) - ( H_N - ln(N) - ln(2) ). Taking limits as N -> inf we get that lim S_2N = C - C + ln(2) = ln(2) :)

  • @williamchurcher9645

    @williamchurcher9645

    Жыл бұрын

    I would imagine this would be the way they teach it in undergraduate courses...

  • @CaradhrasAiguo49

    @CaradhrasAiguo49

    Жыл бұрын

    This closed form of the difference of partial sums H_{bN} - H_N (b \in positive integers) was also explored in a collaboration integral of floor functions to Riemann sum video with @blackpenredpen

  • @virtualouise
    @virtualouise Жыл бұрын

    That was great!

  • @tonyhaddad1394
    @tonyhaddad1394 Жыл бұрын

    great job mst michael

  • @wyatt6721
    @wyatt6721 Жыл бұрын

    Very nice!

  • @goodplacetostop2973
    @goodplacetostop2973 Жыл бұрын

    9:17

  • @danielevilone
    @danielevilone Жыл бұрын

    Wonderful!

  • @tutordave
    @tutordave Жыл бұрын

    I'd like to see a double (or triple or higher summation) of (-1)^(m+n)/sqrt(n^2 + m^2). This is related to the Madeulng constant. I don't think there is a closed form for it, or none that I've seen.

  • @pow3rofevil
    @pow3rofevil Жыл бұрын

    Very Nice

  • @CM63_France
    @CM63_France Жыл бұрын

    Ok, great! Maybe we can do similarly with the alternating harmonic series of the odd numbers, and with the function arctan.

  • @TheShaolinBear
    @TheShaolinBear Жыл бұрын

    You can also use ln(1+x) = sum (-1)^{n+1}*x^n/n, but that would be overkill

  • @hiimgood

    @hiimgood

    Жыл бұрын

    Or, as blackpenredpen would say, "use the best friend" to get the sum (-1)^n * x^(n+1)/n+1) (via integrating the geometric series)

  • @Noam_.Menashe

    @Noam_.Menashe

    Жыл бұрын

    That's probably easier.

  • @stanleydodds9

    @stanleydodds9

    Жыл бұрын

    I don't see how you can use this without knowing a priori that it converges to ln(2) at x=1, which is exactly what we are trying to show to begin with. Even if we take as a given a strong result like ln is holomorphic on appropriate domains, we still have the problem that ln(z) has a pole at z=0. Therefore the radius of convergence of the Taylor series centred at 1 (which is the formula you've used) is exactly 1. In general, Taylor series may or may not converge to the true value of the function, or at all, at the radius of convergence. So with this alone, we don't get any information on the convergence at x=1. For this to work, you would have to additionally know that the series does in fact converge to ln(2) at x=1. But as I say, this is what we are trying to prove to begin with, so this isn't a fact we should be able to use.

  • @Hyakurin_

    @Hyakurin_

    Жыл бұрын

    This is not overkill, it's the standard way

  • @l1mbo69

    @l1mbo69

    Жыл бұрын

    @@stanleydodds9 I don't get what you mean, if we have enough knowledge to derive taylor's theorem (which idts requires knowing this before using?) then what's the problem?

  • @user-ft3ed2hs2d
    @user-ft3ed2hs2d Жыл бұрын

    Nice!

  • @arielfuxman8868
    @arielfuxman8868 Жыл бұрын

    That's what I love Math

  • @Reza_Audio
    @Reza_Audio Жыл бұрын

    GREAT

  • @glennjohnson4919
    @glennjohnson4919 Жыл бұрын

    What about Riemann’s rearrangement theorem? Don’t you have to also specify an order of the terms?

  • @glennjohnson4919

    @glennjohnson4919

    Жыл бұрын

    You did pick an order by the choice of partial sums, just did not emphasize that? Very nice development though.

  • @iabervon

    @iabervon

    Жыл бұрын

    @@glennjohnson4919 Yeah, what he's reordering is a finite sum, which doesn't change anything, except that the resulting expression doesn't have the form of a limit of partial sums (so it can't be turned into a reordered infinite sum).

  • @egillandersson1780
    @egillandersson1780 Жыл бұрын

    I'm lost ! I have to read again about Rieman' series.

  • @HershO.
    @HershO. Жыл бұрын

    This was pretty cool! Could you make a video about the sum of a harmonic progression to n? Like an entire analysis kind of thing of 1/a, 1/(a+d)...? I was confused about this topic and don't seem to understand any sources or find reliable ones.

  • @forcelifeforce

    @forcelifeforce

    Жыл бұрын

    That second one needs to be 1/(a + d).

  • @HershO.

    @HershO.

    Жыл бұрын

    @@forcelifeforce Sorry that's exactly what I meant, was in a bit of a hurry lol

  • @theramofanujan2716
    @theramofanujan2716 Жыл бұрын

    🐐

  • @Luizabf
    @Luizabf11 ай бұрын

    Maravilha

  • @lucachiesura5191
    @lucachiesura5191 Жыл бұрын

    great...w Torricelli

  • @Ensivion
    @Ensivion Жыл бұрын

    This series is a bit trivial if you can recognize the power series representation of ln(1+x), good proof though.

  • @joshuanugentfitnessjourney3342
    @joshuanugentfitnessjourney3342 Жыл бұрын

    Thankyou I have a degree in math but cant find anything to do with it Your videos help me keep my edge sharp

  • @DaMoNarch91
    @DaMoNarch91 Жыл бұрын

    The answer ~.69 which is nice

  • @jeff-buri-jeff3716
    @jeff-buri-jeff3716 Жыл бұрын

    cute!

  • @iabervon
    @iabervon Жыл бұрын

    By "the terms go to zero" you mean that they decrease in absolute value, not just that they converge to zero in case anyone else was also confused about that.

  • @Senteggo

    @Senteggo

    22 күн бұрын

    I think there is no difference between converging to zero and decreasing in absolute value

  • @iabervon

    @iabervon

    21 күн бұрын

    ​@@Senteggo It's been a while, but I think I meant that the absolute values form a decreasing sequence, while a convergent sequence can sometimes take steps away from 0.

  • @Senteggo

    @Senteggo

    21 күн бұрын

    @@iabervon can you give an example?

  • @iabervon

    @iabervon

    21 күн бұрын

    @@Senteggo 1/(2^(n+(-1)^n)), which goes 1, 1/8, 1/4, 1/32, 1/16, 1/128, 1/64, ... Half of the terms are larger than the previous term, but the series converges to 0.

  • @Senteggo

    @Senteggo

    21 күн бұрын

    @@iabervon wolfram alpha says it diverges

  • @dkravitz78
    @dkravitz783 ай бұрын

    H_2n - H_n has limit log(2n)+gamma - log(n) -gamma =log(2n)-log(n)=log(2). Can stop as soon as you get there

  • @nHans
    @nHans Жыл бұрын

    I get nervous when such tactics are used. It seems-at first glance at least-that an advanced technique-calculus-is being used to build one of its own foundations-series sum. It's like supporting the third floor of your building by using cables hanging from the sixth floor. It's like using the distance formula to prove the Pythagoras Theorem. Or the Maclaurin Series for finding the power series of _e._ Or algebra to prove that 1+1=2. All of which-by the way-my students are guilty of doing. Now you can do all that in the Math Olympiad and similar contests, where you're allowed to use any "well-known" result to solve the problem at hand. But in pedagogy-when teaching a formal math course-you can't do that. You have to start with axioms and build up from there step-by-step. At each step, you can only use prior results; nothing from the future!