Root and Ratio tests Inconclusive

  • Thread starter Thread starter mattmns
  • Start date Start date
  • Tags Tags
    Ratio Root
mattmns
Messages
1,121
Reaction score
5
Here is the question in the book:
--------------
Give an example of a divergent infinite series of positive numbers a_{n} such that \lim_{n\rightarrow \infty}a_{n+1}/a_{n} = \lim_{n\rightarrow \infty}a_{n}^{1/n} = 1 and an example of a convergent infinite series of positive numbers with the same property.
-------------

For the divergent series I gave a somewhat trivial example. The series: 1+1+1+1+1+... which is certainly divergent and has the necessary limit properties.

For the convergent series though I am a little clueless. What should I be looking for. I know that the nth root of the "last" term should be 1, and also the "last" term should be approaching 0, but I just can't seem to get anything to satisfy both. Please don't post such a series, but instead if you could give some hints as to how I should go about finding one, and maybe other things that I should know when looking for such a sequence. Thanks!
 
Last edited:
Physics news on Phys.org
hint: n^(1/n)-->1
 
\sum_{n=0}^{\infty} 1/n^2 converges and has the properties. Thanks.

edit... Using your hint again, I could use \sum_{n=0}^{\infty} 1/n as the divergent series with the desired properties which is probably a little nicer than my lame example :smile:
 
Last edited:
Nice.

-----
 
There are two things I don't understand about this problem. First, when finding the nth root of a number, there should in theory be n solutions. However, the formula produces n+1 roots. Here is how. The first root is simply ##\left(r\right)^{\left(\frac{1}{n}\right)}##. Then you multiply this first root by n additional expressions given by the formula, as you go through k=0,1,...n-1. So you end up with n+1 roots, which cannot be correct. Let me illustrate what I mean. For this...
Back
Top