Determining General Values of Convergence for a seqence

trap101
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Determine the values of "r" for which rn converges.


Is there a specific procedure I should try to apply to figure this out? The only things I could intuitively come up with that will converge in this scenario are when -1 ≤ r ≤ 1...is there anything else to this?
 
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Really? r = -1?? For |r|<1 I guess it depends on what you have to work with. You might consider what happens to ##y=\ln(|r|^n)##.
 
LCKurtz said:
Really? r = -1?? For |r|<1 I guess it depends on what you have to work with. You might consider what happens to ##y=\ln(|r|^n)##.



I don't fully see what your getting at. From what you wrote that would become n ln(r), but in that case it would not converge.
 
LCKurtz said:
Really? r = -1?? For |r|<1 I guess it depends on what you have to work with. You might consider what happens to ##y=\ln(|r|^n)##.

trap101 said:
I don't fully see what your getting at. From what you wrote that would become n ln(r), but in that case it would not converge.

That's "you're", not "your".

What about ##r=-1##? Have you thought about that?

Yes, ##y=\ln(|r|^n) = n \ln(|r|)## doesn't converge. But what does it do? Since ##y## is the logarithm of your problem, what does that tell you about your problem?
 
LCKurtz said:
That's "you're", not "your".

What about ##r=-1##? Have you thought about that?

Yes, ##y=\ln(|r|^n) = n \ln(|r|)## doesn't converge. But what does it do? Since ##y## is the logarithm of your problem, what does that tell you about your problem?



In the case of r = -1, the sequence oscillates so it is divergent.

In the second part ##y=\ln(|r|^n) = n \ln(|r|)## goes to infinity whenever r > 1, when 0 < r < 1 then it converges.

So the main behavior to try and examine occurs between -1 < r < 1 then
 
trap101 said:
In the case of r = -1, the sequence oscillates so it is divergent.

In the second part ##y=\ln(|r|^n) = n \ln(|r|)## goes to infinity whenever r > 1, when 0 < r < 1 then it converges.

So the main behavior to try and examine occurs between -1 < r < 1 then

Yes, that's what I'm getting at. What happens to ##y## when ##|r|<1##?
 
LCKurtz said:
Yes, that's what I'm getting at. What happens to ##y## when ##|r|<1##?

In that instance it appears as if it's going to converge to 0, but when r is in the form ##ln(r)## it's tending toward negative infiniti
 
trap101 said:
In that instance it appears as if it's going to converge to 0, but when r is in the form ##ln(r)## it's tending toward negative infiniti

You can't just assert ##|r|^n\to 0##; that's what you are trying to prove if ##|r|<1##. But once you know ##\ln|r|^n\to -\infty##, doesn't that show it?
 
LCKurtz said:
But once you know ##\ln|r|^n\to -\infty##, doesn't that show it?


After staring and thinking about it for a second is this the proper rationale behind the convergence to 0?:

SO I know: ##\ln|r|^n\to -\infty## .

if I raise both sides to "e": e ##ln|r|^n## --> e##-\infty##. since that would simplify to |r|n --> 1/ e##infty## and that tends to 0.
 
  • #10
LCKurtz said:
But once you know ##\ln|r|^n\to -\infty##, doesn't that show it?


After staring and thinking about it for a second is this the proper rationale behind the convergence to 0?:

SO I know: ##\ln|r|^n\to -\infty## .

if I raise both sides to "e": e ##ln|r|^n## --> e##-\infty##. since that would simplify to |r|n --> 1/ e##infty## and that tends to 0.

Is that how it ends up converging to 0?
 
  • #11
trap101 said:
After staring and thinking about it for a second is this the proper rationale behind the convergence to 0?:

SO I know: ##\ln|r|^n\to -\infty## .

if I raise both sides to "e": e ##ln|r|^n## --> e##-\infty##. since that would simplify to |r|n --> 1/ e##infty## and that tends to 0.

That's the idea, although you can probably find a more proper way to express it.
 
  • #12
Thanks. and thanks for having the patience to help me through it
 
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