My Math Forum Need Help Understanding Infinite Series
 User Name Remember Me? Password

 Calculus Calculus Math Forum

 November 23rd, 2014, 10:40 AM #1 Newbie   Joined: Jan 2012 Posts: 1 Thanks: 0 Need Help Understanding Infinite Series I would appreciate it, if someone would explain to me how it can be that an infinite series can possibly converge to a finite number. If infinity means "never ending," then an infinite number of terms in a series should add to an infinite sum, not a finite number; however, according to my calculus book, an infinite series such as 1 + 1/2^2 + 1/3^2 + 1/4^2 + ... converges to (pi^2)/6. This doesn't make sense, to me; how can you finally arrive at a definite, specific sum, if you are forever adding to the partial sums? Yet the so-called "harmonic" series 1/1 + 1/2 + 1/3 + 1/4 + ...diverges to infinity. This does make sense to me, since you are continually and forever adding more & more to the partial sums, so of course the sum will be infinite; no-brainer, it seems. In both cases, we are forever adding on more and more, and in both cases, the terms are heading toward zero as the series progresses, so what can be the difference? Why should one end, while the other explodes into infinity? It would be most helpful, if any attempt to answer this seeming conundrum is given in plain-English, rather than in some complex, mathematical expression, since my math skill level isn't that great, as you can tell. It has been my experience that, if someone can't put an idea into simple terms, then they probably don't really understand it that well, themselves. Obviously, that idea has its limits, since some things, such as quantum physics, are, by nature, rather hard to water down, but I don't think that holds true in this case. Last edited by rayroshi; November 23rd, 2014 at 10:44 AM.
November 23rd, 2014, 11:09 AM   #2
Global Moderator

Joined: Nov 2006
From: UTC -5

Posts: 16,046
Thanks: 938

Math Focus: Number theory, computational mathematics, combinatorics, FOM, symbolic logic, TCS, algorithms
Quote:
 Originally Posted by rayroshi If infinity means "never ending," then an infinite number of terms in a series should add to an infinite sum, not a finite number; however, according to my calculus book, an infinite series such as 1 + 1/2^2 + 1/3^2 + 1/4^2 + ... converges to (pi^2)/6. This doesn't make sense, to me; how can you finally arrive at a definite, specific sum, if you are forever adding to the partial sums?
Until you have a lot more experience, it's best to think of this purely formally. That is, saying that
$$\lim_{n\to\infty}\sum_{k=1}^nf(k)=c$$
mean that for any $\varepsilon>0$ that you choose, you can find some number N such that
$$\left|c-\sum_{k=1}^nf(k)\right|<\varepsilon$$
for any n >= N.

With your example, let's take $\varepsilon=0.001$. You can compute that
$$\frac{\pi^2}{6}-\sum{k=1}^{1000}\frac{1}{k^2}\approx0.0009995002$$
and so you can view the convergence of the sum as the statement that no matter how large you choose n > 1000, the sum will be within 0.001 of $\pi^2/6.$

When you gain mathematical maturity you will see why we call this behavior "convergence", but that's not so important here.

Quote:
 Originally Posted by rayroshi Yet the so-called "harmonic" series 1/1 + 1/2 + 1/3 + 1/4 + ...diverges to infinity. This does make sense to me, since you are continually and forever adding more & more to the partial sums, so of course the sum will be infinite; no-brainer, it seems.
Your understanding here is wrong, though you are correct that the harmonic series diverges. Again, it would be better to view this formally. Think of it as a game where you pick any number $x$ and I find some $n$ such that
$$\sum_{k=1}^n\frac{1}{k}>x$$
which shows that the harmonic series is unbounded above. For example, you pick x = 1000 and I pick, oh, 10^435. It's possible to show (though it's too big to compute directly!) that
$$\sum_{k=1}^{10^{435}}\frac1k\approx1002.2017$$
and you could do similarly for any choice of $x$.

A series is unbounded above (and hence diverges) if, whenever we play this game, I can always win. If you can win (by choosing some huge number that I can't surpass by any choice of $n$) then the number is bounded above. If no terms are negative, then this means that the sum converges to some finite value. (Obviously negative terms can cause problems, like $\sum_{k=1}^\infty-1$; in fact they can cause more subtle problems too with what is called conditional convergence but that's getting more complicated and you asked for easy.)

***

In summary: both convergence and divergence can be viewed as two-player games which involve only finite numbers. Don't let the squiggle $\infty$ scare you away, because all it's doing is telling you to play one of these two games.

 Tags infinite, series, understanding

### i don't understand infinite series

Click on a term to search for related topics.
 Thread Tools Display Modes Linear Mode

 Similar Threads Thread Thread Starter Forum Replies Last Post oddlogic Calculus 7 April 1st, 2011 04:49 PM Singularity Complex Analysis 1 December 5th, 2010 04:52 PM tomc Real Analysis 3 September 23rd, 2009 08:07 AM johnny Calculus 1 September 9th, 2009 05:57 AM Salient Calculus 1 May 5th, 2009 04:48 PM

 Contact - Home - Forums - Cryptocurrency Forum - Top