Understanding the Block Test for Convergence of Dyadic Series

emilya
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Can anyone give me any help on how to get started, or how to do this problem?
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Prove that if the terms of a sequence decrease monotonically (a_1)>= (a_2)>= ...
and converge to 0 then the series [sum](a_k) converges iff the associated
dyadic series (a_1)+2(a_2)+4(a_4)+8(a_8)+... = [sum](2^k)*(a_2^k) converges.

I call this the block test b/c it groups the terms of the series in blocks
of length 2^(k-1).
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thank you!
 
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Can you show that this pair of inequalities is true:

2 \times \sum_{i=1}^{2^k} a_n \geq \sum_{i=0}^{k} \left( \sum_{j=2^{i-1}}^{2^i} a_{2^{i-1}} \right) \geq \sum_{i=1}^{2^k} a_n

(The middle expression is the dyadic series.)
 
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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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