Does This Series Telesope and What is Its Partial Sum Formula?

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Homework Help Overview

The discussion revolves around a series that the original poster is attempting to show telescopes. The context involves understanding the properties of the series and finding a formula for its partial sum, as well as determining its limit.

Discussion Character

  • Exploratory, Assumption checking, Conceptual clarification

Approaches and Questions Raised

  • The original poster expresses uncertainty about the definition of a telescoping series and whether the series in question exhibits this property. They also mention a belief regarding the limit of the series. Other participants suggest algebraic manipulations and provide hints, but there is confusion about their relevance.

Discussion Status

The discussion is ongoing, with participants exploring different interpretations of the series and its properties. Some guidance has been offered in the form of hints, but there is no clear consensus or resolution yet.

Contextual Notes

The original poster is working under the constraints of a homework assignment, which may impose specific requirements for demonstrating the series' behavior and deriving the partial sum formula.

Firepanda
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I've been asked to show that the series:

http://img260.imageshack.us/img260/2676/asdaam0.jpg

That it telescopes, hence find a formula for its partial sum, and then state the limit.

I'm sure I could find a formula for its partial sum IF I could simply show that it telescopes, for me I can't see how it does. Maybe I have a wrong definition of telescoping, but I thought it was when the majority of terms cancel, where in that series I can't see happening. Also I believe from inspection the limit is (ln 1).

Any help? :)

Thanks
 
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It might help to notice that 1-1/k^2 = (k+1)(k-1)/k^2.
 
Yeah they gave us that as a hint. I can't see how it helps though :P
 
So
[tex]ln(1-\frac{2}{k^2})= ln(\frac{(k-1)(k+1)}{k^2}[/tex]
What is THAT equal to?
 

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