# Verifying summation with Maple

## Homework Statement

Verify the following summations using Maple (see image).

None

## The Attempt at a Solution

For the first one, I enter

Code:
sum(k^3, k=1..n);
in Maple, and the result is

1/4*(n+1)^4-1/2*(n+1)^3+1/4*(n+1)^2,

which is definitely not the answer. Why is Maple giving me these weird and incorrect answers? The question is rather simple as I am just supposed to verify these summations using a computer, but for some reason, my computer seems to be complicating things.

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Okay, so it seems if I type

Code:
factor(sum(k^3, k=1..n));
,

I get the correct answer. What gives?

Similarly,

Code:
sum(x^k, k=0..infinity);
1
- -----
x - 1

which = 1/(1-x).

But when I type

Code:
evalb(-1/(x-1) = 1/(1-x));
I obtain false. But they are equal! Am I completely missing something with Maple here???

uart
Hi stripes. Are you aware that there is usually more than one way to write any given mathematical expression, for example an expanded and a factorized form.

Look at a simple example.
$$\frac{1}{x} - \frac{1}{x+1} = \frac{1}{x(x+1)}$$
Writing it one way as opposed to the other makes it neither weird nor wrong.

Hi stripes. Are you aware that there is usually more than one way to write any given mathematical expression, for example an expanded and a factorized form.

Look at a simple example.
$$\frac{1}{x} - \frac{1}{x+1} = \frac{1}{x(x+1)}$$
Writing it one way as opposed to the other makes it neither weird nor wrong.
Oh, I understand that completely. I think most people on this forum do. What is puzzling me is that when I am given the expanded form, I don't immediately recognize it as being the correct answer because I am not quite a mathematician yet. So when I try to see if the expanded expression is equal to the factored expression, by using the evalb() operator in Maple, I get "false". I think one of my posts explained that. That's what's puzzling.

In other words, Maple is telling me 1/(1-x) =/= -1/(x-1), but they are, in fact, equal. This is my issue.

uart