8/15/2018 Borwein integral - Wikipedia

Borwein integral
In mathematics, a Borwein integral is an integral involving products of sinc(ax), where the sinc function is given by
sinc(x) = sin(x)
x
for x not equal to 0, and sinc(0) = 1.[1][2]

These integrals are remarkable for exhibiting apparent patterns which, however, eventually break down. An example is
as follows,

This pattern continues up to

Nevertheless, at the next step the obvious pattern fails,

π
In general, similar integrals have value 2 whenever the numbers 3, 5, 7… are replaced by positive real numbers such
that the sum of their reciprocals is less than 1.

In the example above, 31 + 51 + … + 13

1
< 1, but 31 + 51 + … + 15
1
> 1.

An example for a longer series,

but

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8/15/2018 Borwein integral - Wikipedia

is shown in [3] together with an intuitive mathematical explanation of the reason why the original and the extended
series break down. In this case, 31 + 51 + … + 111
1
< 2, but 31 + 51 + … + 113
1
> 2.

General formula
Given a sequence of real numbers, , a general formula for the integral

can be given.[1] To state the formula, one will need to consider sums involving the . In particular, if
is an -tuple where each entry is , then we write
, which is a kind of alternating sum of the first few , and we set
, which is either . With this notation, the value for the above integral is

where

In the case when , we have .

Furthermore, if there is an so that for each we have and

, which means that is the first value when the partial sum
of the first elements of the sequence exceed , then for each but

The first example is the case when . Note that if then and

but , so because , we get

that

which remains true if we remove any of the products, but that

which is equal to the value given previously.

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References
1. Borwein, David; Borwein, Jonathan M. (2001), "Some remarkable properties of sinc and related integrals", The
Ramanujan Journal, 5 (1): 73–89, doi:10.1023/A:1011497229317 (https://doi.org/10.1023/A%3A1011497229317),
ISSN 1382-4090 (https://www.worldcat.org/issn/1382-4090), MR 1829810 (https://www.ams.org/mathscinet-getite
m?mr=1829810)
2. Baillie, Robert (2011). "Fun With Very Large Numbers". arXiv:1105.3943 (https://arxiv.org/abs/1105.3943) 
[math.NT (https://arxiv.org/archive/math.NT)].
3. Schmid, Hanspeter (2014), "Two curious integrals and a graphic proof" (http://schmid-werren.ch/hanspeter/public
ations/2014elemath.pdf) (PDF), Elemente der Mathematik, 69 (1): 11–17, doi:10.4171/EM/239 (https://doi.org/10.
4171/EM/239), ISSN 0013-6018 (https://www.worldcat.org/issn/0013-6018)

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