SEQUENCES

(F. Leja - Rach. różniczkowy i całkowy ,

K. Kuratowski - Rach. różniczkowy i całkowy,
W. Trench – Introduction to Real Analysis)

1. Introduction
Definition 1.1.
A sequence is a function whose domain is the set of positive integers.
an : N →  (C ) .

We usually say – infinite sequence. Sometimes the domain of a function is a finite subset of the
set of positive integers – then we get a finite sequence.

Notation:
a1 , a 2 , a3 , ... − terms of the sequence,

(an ) − sequence a n ,

an - the general term of the sequence;

Example 1.1 Examples of the sequences:

1. the sequence of odd numbers 1,3,5,... , a n = 2n − 1 ,

2. the sequence of even numbers 2,4,6,... , a n = 2n ,

1
3. an =
n
4. an = (−1) n

5. a n = 2 n

6. an = (−2) n

2. Boundness

Definition 2.1
A sequence (an ) is bounded below if  m,  n N an  m .

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Definition 2.2
A sequence (an ) is bounded above if  M ,  n N an  M .

Definition 2.3.
A sequence ( an ) is said to be bounded if it is bounded below and bounded above

it is  m, M ,  n N m  an  M

and there exists a constant k, such that  k ,  n N | an |  k .

Example 2.1
1. the sequence 𝑎𝑛 = 𝑛 is bounded below, not bounded above;
2. the sequence 𝑎𝑛 = −𝑛 is bounded above but not bounded below;
1
3. the sequence 𝑎𝑛 = 𝑛 is bounded, because is bounded below and bounded above;

4. the sequence 𝑎𝑛 = (−1)𝑛 is bounded;

5. the sequence 𝑎𝑛 = 2𝑛 is bounded below, not bounded above;
6. the sequence 𝑎𝑛 = (−2)𝑛 is unbounded

3. Monotonic sequences

An important class of sequences is so-called monotonic sequences which are defined as follows

Definition 3.1
A sequence ( an ) is said to be

a) increasing if
a1  a2  a3 ... it is  nN an  an+1 (  nN an+1 − an  0 );

b) nondecreasing if
a1  a2  a3 ... it is  n N an  an+1 (  n N an+1 − an  0 );

c) decreasing if
a1  a2  a3 ... it is  nN an  an+1 (  nN an+1 − an  0 );

2
 d) nonincreasing if
a1  a 2  a3 ... it is  n N an  an +1 (  n N an +1 − an  0 ).

Example 3.1 Determine whether the given sequence is monotonic

n
1. a n = , increasing;
3n + 1
2n
2. an = , decreasing;
n!

2 2n (n!) 2
3. a n = , increasing.
(2n)!

4. Limit of a sequence
Definition 4.1
Let x0   and   0 . The open interval ( x0 −  , x0 +  ) is said to be an  − neighbourhood

of x 0 .

A deleted neighbourhood of a number x0 is a set that contains every point of some

neighbourhood of x 0 except for x 0 itself it is the set ( x0 −  , x0 )  ( x0 , x0 +  ) .

It is worth noticing the following equivalences:

x  ( x0 −  , x0 +  )  x − x0  

x  ( x0 −  , x0 )  ( x0 , x0 +  )  0  x − x0   .

Definition 4.2
A sequence ( an ) has a limit g (a sequence ( an ) is convergent to a number g)

lim an = g    0  n0  N  n  n0 | an − g |  
n →

The terms of the sequence approach to the one number (limit).

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Note that for any   0 the points ( n, an ) lie between the lines y = g −  and y = g +  ,

provided that n is sufficiently large.

Definition 4.3 The sequence has the infinite limit (  )

lim a n =     0  n0  N  n  n0 an  
n→

Remark 4.1.
A sequence that does not converge is divergent ( it diverges). Sometimes one says that sequence
which has the limit +  or -  is divergent to +  or -  .

5. A Useful Limit Theorems

Theorem 5.1
The limit of a convergent sequence is unique.

Theorem 5.2
A convergent sequence (which has finite limit) is bounded.

Remark 5.1.
It is not truth that every bounded sequence is convergent. E.g. an = (−1) n is bounded but it
is not convergent.

Theorem 5.3
A bounded, monotonic sequence has a finite limit.

Theorem 5.4
Let limits of the sequences (an ) and (bn ) be finite numbers it is:

lim an = a and lim bn = b . Then

n → n →

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 1. lim (an  bn ) = a  b ,
n →

2. lim c an = c a, c  ,
n→

3. lim (an  bn ) = a  b ,
n →

an a
4. lim = , where bn  0 for all n  N ,
n→ bn b

5. lim (an ) k = a k , where k  0, kR ,

n →

Theorem 5.5 ( The Squeeze Theorem for Infinite Sequences )

If (an ) , (bn ) and (cn ) are infinite sequences such that

1. an  bn  cn for all n  n0 , n0  N ,

2. lim an = lim cn = g ,
n → n →

then lim bn = g .
n→

Theorem 5.6
If ( a n ) and (bn ) are infinite sequences such that

1. an  bn for all n  n0

2. lim an = 
n →

then lim bn =  .
n →

Theorem 5.7
If ( a n ) and (bn ) satisfy the following conditions

1. lim an = a, 0a
n →

2. lim bn = 0 bn  0 n  N ,
n →

an
then lim = .
n→ b
n

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The last Theorem can be written shortly in the form :
𝑎
=∞ 𝑓𝑜𝑟 0<𝑎≤∞
0+

So we can write
𝑎
1. = −∞ for -∞ ≤ 𝑎 < 0
0+
𝑎
2. = −∞ for 0<𝑎≤∞
0−
𝑎
3. =∞ for -∞ ≤ 𝑎 < 0
0−
𝑎
4. =0 for -∞ < 𝑎 < ∞
∞

5. 𝑎 + ∞ = ∞ for -∞ < 𝑎 ≤ ∞
6. 𝑎 ⋅ ∞ = ∞ for 0<𝑎≤∞
7. 𝑎 ⋅ ∞ = −∞ for −∞ ≤ 𝑎 < 0
8. 𝑎∞ = 0 for 0+ ≤ 𝑎 < 1
9. 𝑎∞ = ∞ for 1<𝑎≤∞
10. ∞𝑎 = 0 for -∞ ≤ 𝑎 < 0
11. ∞𝑎 = ∞ for 0<𝑎≤∞

0  
    
Thus, we obtain indeterminate forms:   ,   ,  − , 0   , 1 , 0 0 ,  0 .
0  

Theorem 5.8
If
1. (an ) and (bn ) are the sequences of real numbers

2. (bn ) is an increasing sequence such that lim bn = 

n →

𝑎𝑛+1 −𝑎𝑛
3. the limit lim exists,
𝑛→∞ 𝑏𝑛+1 −𝑏𝑛

an
then the limit lim exists too, and
n → b
n
𝑎𝑛 𝑎𝑛+1 −𝑎𝑛
lim = lim .
𝑛→∞ 𝑏𝑛 𝑛→∞ 𝑏𝑛+1 −𝑏𝑛

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Remark 5.2 Some sequences and their limits
n
 1
1. lim 1 +  = e
n→ n
n
 a
2. lim 1 +  = e a for any a  R ,
n →  n

3. lim n a = 1 for a 0,

n →

4. lim n n = 1 ,
n →

5. lim n n! =  .
n →

Example 5.1 Find the limit of the sequences (if it exists)

4n3 + 5n − 1
1. lim = ... = 0 ,
n→ 3n 5 + 2n 2

2. lim
n→
( 4n + 5n − 7 − 2n) = 54 ,
2

n +3
 4
3. lim 1 +  = ... = e 4
n→ n
3n+ 2
n+2
4. lim   = ... = e −9
n → n + 5
 
3n+ 2
 2n − 1 
5. lim   = ... = 0
n→ 3n + 2
 

6. lim n 2n + 4n = 4
n→

ln n
7. lim = ... = 0
n → n