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Nah.  It just needs to be decreasing as n approaches infinity.  Think about it this way:  you could change the sum so it includes all of the increasing terms, plus the sum from n past that point to infinity, and it would still be finite. --[[User:Jmason|John Mason]]
 
Nah.  It just needs to be decreasing as n approaches infinity.  Think about it this way:  you could change the sum so it includes all of the increasing terms, plus the sum from n past that point to infinity, and it would still be finite. --[[User:Jmason|John Mason]]
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I got that this one diverged by Integral Test after I ended up using the integral...Mathematica said the same.  Anyone agree that it diverges?  I just want to make sure I'm not crazy since this problem cost me a lot of time and struggle...

Revision as of 20:36, 2 November 2008

Plotting the expression ln(n)/sqrt(n) shows that the function first increases until about x = 7 or 8, and then decreases as x goes to infinity. In order to use the Integral test, however, doesn't the function have to be continually decreasing over the entire domain of the sum? --Randy Eckman 21:38, 2 November 2008 (UTC)

Nah. It just needs to be decreasing as n approaches infinity. Think about it this way: you could change the sum so it includes all of the increasing terms, plus the sum from n past that point to infinity, and it would still be finite. --John Mason

I got that this one diverged by Integral Test after I ended up using the integral...Mathematica said the same. Anyone agree that it diverges? I just want to make sure I'm not crazy since this problem cost me a lot of time and struggle...

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Ph.D. on Applied Mathematics in Aug 2007. Involved on applications of image super-resolution to electron microscopy

Francisco Blanco-Silva