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=A useful Geometric Series formula=
 
<math>\sum_{n = M}^N \alpha^n = \frac{\alpha^M - \alpha^{N-1}}{(1 - \alpha)}</math>
 
<math>\sum_{n = M}^N \alpha^n = \frac{\alpha^M - \alpha^{N-1}}{(1 - \alpha)}</math>
  
 
*What if <math>\alpha=1</math>????
 
*What if <math>\alpha=1</math>????
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*For what values of M and N does this formula hold? Can they both be negative? Does N need to be greater than M?
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[[More_on_geometric_series|Back to page on Geometric Series]]

Revision as of 08:41, 29 September 2010

A useful Geometric Series formula

$ \sum_{n = M}^N \alpha^n = \frac{\alpha^M - \alpha^{N-1}}{(1 - \alpha)} $

  • What if $ \alpha=1 $????
  • For what values of M and N does this formula hold? Can they both be negative? Does N need to be greater than M?

Back to page on Geometric Series

Alumni Liaison

Ph.D. 2007, working on developing cool imaging technologies for digital cameras, camera phones, and video surveillance cameras.

Buyue Zhang