Understanding Summation Notation for Beginners

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icystrike
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2008
Summation (-1)^{i} \frac{i^2+i+1}{i!}
i=1
I guess I am suppose to apply the summation rule

and i got (-1)^{i} \frac{n(n+1)(n+2)+3n}{3i!}
 
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What summation rule are you talking about?
What is n in your final answer?
How can it depend on i anyway, if you are summing over that?

Please elaborate a bit more on how you wanted to solve the question.
 
CompuChip said:
What summation rule are you talking about?
What is n in your final answer?
How can it depend on i anyway, if you are summing over that?

Please elaborate a bit more on how you wanted to solve the question.

n is 2008.

Im uncertain of the application of summation - factorial.
 
Could you answer CompuChip's first question? Secondly are you sure the sum is listed correctly, because when I plug it into mathematica it gives a pretty terrible result. Not something one new to summations would be expected to do.
 
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...
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