#Convergence

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silver basalt
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Let $a_n$ such that the sequence $\sum_{n=1}^\infty a_n$ converge conditionally, does $\sum_{n=1}^\infty|a_n+a_{n+1}|$ must converge as well?

frank flareBOT
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oblique tartanBOT
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mtr123

silver basalt
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my intuition is that the claim is wrong, though trying to come up with a counter example wasn't easy for me, tried (-1)^n/n but that doesn't work

warped kraken
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if alternating one term doesn't work, ||how about try alternating two terms?||

silver basalt
# warped kraken if alternating one term doesn't work, ||how about try alternating two terms?||

Ok i think i got it
choose:

$a_n = \frac{(-1)^n}{ln(n)}$ we have $\sum_{n=1}^\infty 1/ln(n) \geq \sum_{n=1}^\infty 1/n$ diverge and also by leibniz theorem we have $\sum_{n=1}^\infty a_n$ converge

now we check for $a_n+a_{n+1}$

$= | (-1)^n \frac{1}{ln(n) - \frac{1}{ln(n+1)}} | 😐 \frac{ln(n+1)-ln(n)}{ln(n)ln(n+1)}|$
now i want to compare this with $\frac{1}{ln(n)^2}$ and claim that they diverge or converge together and i know this series diverge since its bigger than 1/(sqrt n)^2 which diverge and thats it?

oblique tartanBOT
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mtr123
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stone orbit
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the denominator is equivalent to ln(n)²

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but try finding an equivalent of the numerator

silver basalt
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which part are you relating too?
ain't sum a_n+a_n+1 diverge?

stone orbit
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ln(n+1) - ln(n)

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= ln((n+1)/n) = ln(1 + 1/n)

silver basalt
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dont i get ln(n+1 / n) and as goes to infty it goes to 0 cuz we have ln(1)?

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so they diverge/ converge together?

stone orbit
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what's an equivalent of that?

stone orbit
silver basalt
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1/ln(n)^2 converge?

stone orbit
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but that's not an equivalent of your general term

silver basalt
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dont we have ln(n) < sqrt n?
so 1/ln(n)^2 > 1 / n?

stone orbit
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your general term is smaller

stone orbit
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ln(n) << sqrt(n)

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1/ln(n)² >> 1/n

silver basalt
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and we have sum 1/n diverge, no?

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so 1/ln(n)^2 diverge as well

stone orbit
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yes but that isn't enough to conclude that |a_n + a_{n+1}| has a divergent series

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because |a_n + a_[n+1]| in practice is much smaller than 1/ln(n)²

silver basalt
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can't we use this one?

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with c_n at the numerator = |a_n+a_{n+1}|

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and b_n = 1/ln(n)^2?

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this is what im suggesting but maybe im missing omething

stone orbit
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yes but you'll find out that their ratio isn't convergent to a nonzero finite limit

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in other words they're not equivalent

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$\frac{\ln(1 + \frac{1}{n})}{\ln(n)\ln(n+1)}$

oblique tartanBOT
silver basalt
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and we divide that by 1/ln(n)^2

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so we are left with $\frac{ln(n)}{ln(n+1)}\cdot ln(1+\frac{1}{n})$

oblique tartanBOT
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mtr123

silver basalt
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ain't it go to ln(1) as n goes to infty?

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which is 0

stone orbit
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yeah see, now that clearly doesn't converge to a finite nonzero limit

stone orbit
silver basalt
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oh yeahhhh

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sorry

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really sorry

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ok i see

stone orbit
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in fact $\lvert a_n - a_{n+1} \rvert$ is equivalent to $\frac{1}{n \ln n}$

oblique tartanBOT
stone orbit
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which is the term of a convergent series

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called a Bertrand series

silver basalt
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so this example doesn't even work?

stone orbit
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yes

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try following MartinFTW's suggestion

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take $a_{2n} = a_{2n+1} = \frac{(-1)^n}{n}$

oblique tartanBOT
silver basalt
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you wrote is as 2n and 2n+1 for even / odd?

stone orbit
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yeah

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take a_0 and a_1 some arbitrary value

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(it doesn't matter)

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a_2 = a_3

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a_4 = a_5

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...

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  1. why is that the term of a conditionally convergent series?
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  1. verify the other property
silver basalt
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ain't it actually:

$a_2n = 2\cdot \frac{(-1)^n}{n}?$
so it will diverge easily if we take absolute value and converge again using Leibniz.

need to check the last property

oblique tartanBOT
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mtr123

stone orbit
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I don't get what the 2 factor is doing there

silver basalt
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summing the original series, ain't it like looking at the even spots and multiply by 2? cuz odd=even?

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a_2=a_3
a_4=a_5

so we can just sum the even spots and multiply by 2, cant we?

stone orbit
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basically, I took a_2 = 1/2, a_3 = 1/2, a_4 = -1/3, a_5 = -1/3, ...

stone orbit
oblique tartanBOT
stone orbit
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this much is true, but needs to be proven (fall back to partial sums)

silver basalt
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ok i see, let me think about it a little bit and i'll just write here later on

silver basalt
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ok so for the first part, can't i still you Leibniz theorem to show this series indeed converge?

in order to show it doens't absolutely converge we can look at
$\sum_{n=1}^\infty a_{2n} = \frac{1}{n}$ which still diverge cuz its just the harmonic series and it is less than the original absolute value of the series.

oblique tartanBOT
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mtr123

silver basalt
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and for the last part we have
$a_{2n}+a_{2n+1} = \frac{2}{n}$ so since all our sequence values are positive (taking absolute value), and this part diverge, the series is going to diverge?

oblique tartanBOT
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mtr123

stone orbit
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@silver basalt

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Formally, to show convergence, consider $S_{N} = \sum_{n=0}^{N} a_n = \sum_{ 2 \leq n \leq N \mathrm{ even}} a_n + \sum_{ 2 \leq n \leq N \mathrm{ odd}} a_n$

oblique tartanBOT
stone orbit
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now notice that while both these sums might not be equal, they both converge

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and this is where you start to think of Leibniz's theorem to show it

silver basalt
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oh so since both converge i can claim the whole series converge so i could use it?

silver basalt
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dont we just get the lebiniz series for each?
$\sum_{n=1}^\infty (-1)^n/n$

oblique tartanBOT
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mtr123

stone orbit
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You can indeed apply Leibniz's rule to each series to prove they converge

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hence, the partial sum S_N will also converge as N tends to infinity

silver basalt
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yeah no problem, i like that you keep asking questions cuz it helps

stone orbit
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Now that you've shown that the series of a_n converges (because the partial sum converges)

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can you disprove absolute convergence?

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again, here, use partial sums to formally disprove absolute convergence

silver basalt
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actually not sure how to use partial sums here.
looking at the even n's we get $\sum_{n=1}^\infty = \frac{1}{n}$ and the same for the odd part. meaning both are the harmonic sequence which sum diverge to infinity so can't we just claim it diverge?

oblique tartanBOT
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mtr123

silver basalt
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because we have just even is smaller than even + odd (all are positive values)

stone orbit
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you can find a divergent subsequence of (A_N), where A_N is the partial sum of |a_n| up to the N-th term

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take (A_2N), it is easy to see that it diverges

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therefore S_N does not converge

silver basalt
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ok ok, great thank you!

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sorry for the delay

stone orbit
silver basalt
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Yep, thank you very much, I'll close the post now 🙂

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+close

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