MATH 1005H Fall 2015

Test Four Solutions  ∞

1
1. (4 marks) Determine whether the sequence 2 is increasing, decreas-
1+ n n=1
ing, or neither. Justify your answer.
Note: writing out the first few terms is not enough to justify that the sequence
is increasing or decreasing (perhaps something different happens after the terms
you’ve written down)!

1
Solution: We give two solutions. We can consider the function f (x) = 1+ x2
=
x
x+2
. Since
2
f 0 (x) = > 0,
(x + 2)2
the sequence is increasing for n ≥ 1.
Alternatively, we observe that
n≤n+1
1 1
≥
n n+1
2 2
≥
n n+1
2 2
1+ ≥1+
n n+1
1 1
≤ 2 ,
1 + n2 1 + n+1
and so the sequence is increasing for n ≥ 1.
∞ √
X n4 + 4
2. (3 marks) Determine whether or not the series converges. Justify
n=0
4n2 + 1
your answer.

Solution: Since
√
q
4
n4 + 4 1+ n4 1
lim = lim 1 = 6= 0,
n→∞ 4n2 + 1 n→∞ 4 + 4
n2
by the nth term test, the series diverges.
3. For each series below, determine if the series converges or diverges. If the series
converges, find the sum.
∞
X 3n
(a) (4 marks)
n=1
5n
∞
X 4n−1
(b) (4 marks)
n=0
3n+1

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 Solution:

(a) This is a geometric series. We have

∞ ∞  n ∞  n
X 3n X 3 X 3 1 5 3
n
= = −1= 3 −1= −1= .
n=1
5 n=1
5 n=0
5 1− 5
2 2

Alternatively, we have
∞  n ∞  n−1 ∞  k    
X 3 3X 3 3X 3 3 1 3 5 3
= = = 3 = = .
n=1
5 5 n=1 5 5 k=0 5 5 1− 5 5 2 2

(b) This is a geometric series. We have

∞  n
X 4n−1 1 X 4
= ,
n=0
3n+1 3 · 4 n=0 3
 
which diverges since  43  ≥ 1.
∞
X 1
4. (5 marks) Determine whether or not the series converges. Justify
n=2
n(ln(n))2
your answer.

1
Solution: Let f (x) = x(ln(x))2 , which is positive, continuous, and decreasing for

x ≥ 2. We can use the integral test. Letting u = ln(x), we have

Z ∞ Z ∞ ∞
1 1 1  1
dx = du = − = .
2 x(ln(x))2 ln(2) u
2 u ln(2) ln(2)


Thus the series converges.

∞
X n
5. (5 marks) Determine whether or not the series converges. Justify
n=0
2n2 + 1
your answer.

Solution: We give a few solutions. We can use the comparison test. Note
that the bound 2n2n+1 ≤ 2nn2 = 2n
1
is useless since the sum of the upper bound
diverges. However, for n ≥ 1 we have
n n n 1
≥ = = .
2n2 + 1 2n2 + n2 3n2 3n
Since 13 ∞
P 1
P∞ n
n=1 n diverges, by the comparison test the series n=0 2n2 +1 must
diverge.
Alternatively, we could use the limit comparison test with an = 2n2n+1 and
bn = n1 . Since

an n/(2n2 + 1) n2 1 1
lim = lim = lim 2
= lim 1 =
n→∞ bn n→∞ 1/n n→∞ 2n + 1 n→∞ 2 + 2 2
n

2
 and ∞
P P∞ 1
n=1 bn = n=1 n diverges, the series must diverge.
Alternatively, we could let f (x) = 2x2x+1 . For x ≥ 1, f (x) is positive, continuous,
1−2x2
and, since f 0 (x) = (2x 2 +1)2 < 0 for x >
√1 , decreasing. We can use the integral
2
test. Since Z ∞ ∞
x 1 2

 = ∞,
dx = ln(2x + 1)
0 2x2 + 1 4 
0
the series diverges.
∞
X ln(n)
6. (5 marks) Show that the series 3 converges. Hint: try to use the limit
n=1 n2
comparison test.

Solution: First some remarks: Let an = ln(n) 3 . Since ln(n) grows slowly, our
n2
intuition mightP tell us that the terms in this series grow only a little faster than
1
the terms of 3 , which is a convergent p-series. Since our terms are only a
n2
little bit bigger, it seems that there’s a good chance this series converges too.
The hint tells us to use the limit comparison test. To what should we compare
this series? If we use bn = 13 , then abnn = ln(n) → ∞, and in the case that the
n2
limit is ∞, no conclusions can be made when bn converges. We should choose a
smaller power on n so that abnn doesn’t grow so fast in the hopes that the limit
is less than ∞. However, we don’t want to choose such a small power of n that
bn diverges (since we think the series converges). It turns out that bn = n1p will
work for any 1 < p < 32 . I’ll use p = 54 below, but other choices of p will work too.

We use the limit comparison test with bn = 15 . Then

n4
 . 
an ln(n) 1
= 3 5
bn n2 n!4
  5
ln(n) n4
= 3
n2 1
ln(n)
= 1
n4
(since 32 − 54 = 14 ). Thus
 
 an  ln(n)
lim   = lim 1
n→∞ bn n→∞ n 4

1/n
= lim 1 − 3 (by L’Hôpital’s Rule)
n→∞ n 4
4
4
= lim 1
n→∞ n 4

= 0.
P 1 5
Since the limit is 0 and 5 converges (it’s a p-series with p = 4
> 1), by the
P∞ n 4ln(n)
limit comparison test, n=1 3 converges.
n2