Arithmetic progression Geometric progression

SEQUENCE AND SERIES

DEFINITION

Sequence and Series, in mathematics, an ordered succession of numbers or other quantities, and the indicated sum of such a succession, respectively.

IMPORTANT TYPES
Important types of sequences include arithmetic sequences (also known as arithmetic progressions) in which the differences between successive terms are constant, and geometric sequences (also known as geometric progressions) in which the ratios of successive terms are constant.

 The term series refers to the indicated sum, a1 + a2 + ... + an, or a1 + a2 + ... + an + ..., of the terms of a sequence. A series is either finite or infinite, depending on whether the corresponding sequence of terms is finite or infinite. The sequence s1 = a1,s2 = a1 + a2, s3 = a1 + a2 + a3, ..., sn = a1 + a2 + ... + an, ..., is called the sequence of partial sums of the series a1+ a2 + ... + an + .... The series converges or diverges as the sequence of partial sums converges or diverges.

A constant-term series is one in which the terms are numbers; a series of functions is one in which the terms are functions of one or more variables. In particular, a power series is the series a0 + a1(x - c) + a2(x - c)2 + ... + an(x - c)n + ..., in which c and the as are constants. In the case of power series, the problem is to describe what values of x they converge for. If a series converges for some x, then the set of all x for which it converges consists of a point or some connected interval.

The basic theory of convergence was worked out by the French mathematician Augustin Louis Cauchy in the 1820s. The theory and application of infinite series are important in virtually every branch of pure and applied mathematics.

 Examples of sequences: 1) 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, ... add 1 to the preceding term 2) 2, 4, 7, 11, 16, 23, 31. add 2 to the preceding term, add 3 to the next term, etc 3) 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34,... add the two preceding terms together

FIBONACCI SEQUENCE

It was discovered by Leonardo of Pisa. This sequence occurs in nature, and Leonardo of Pisa derived it by studying the mating patterns of rabbits.

Sequences and series can be finite or infinite. A finite sequence/series is one that eventually comes to an end, like the second one in the examples above. Infinite sequences/series are those that continue indefinitely, such as the first in the example as well as the Fibonacci sequence.

An arithmetic progression is a sequence in which each term (except the first term) is obtained from the previous term by adding a constant known as the common difference. An arithmetic series is formed by the addition of the terms in an arithmetic progression.

Let the first term on an A. P. be a and common difference d. Then, *General form of an A. P.: a, a + d, a + 2d, a + 3d, ... * nth term of an A. P.: a + (n - 1) d *Sum of first n terms of an A. P.: n/2 [2a + (n - 1) d] or n/2 [ first term + last term]

This idea was from the mathematician Carl Friedrich Gauss, who, as a young boy, stunned his teacher by adding up 1 + 2 + 3 + ... + 99 + 100 within a few minutes. Here's how he did it: He counted 101 terms in the series, of which 50 is the middle term. He also realised that adding the first and last numbers, 1 and 100, gives, 101; and adding the second and second last numbers, 2 and 99, gives 101, as well as 3 + 98 = 101 and so on. Thus he concluded that there are 50 sets of 101 and the middle term is 50.

sum of the series is: 50 (1 + 100) + 50 = 5050. This can be rewritten as: 100/2 (1 + 100) + 50 = 5050 or 101/2 (1 + 100) = 5050

*Arithmetic mean. Given x, y and z are consecutive terms of an A. P., then y-x=z-y 2y = x + z y is known as the arithmetic mean.

GEOMETRIC PROGRESSION

A geometric progression is a sequence in which each term (except the first term) is derived from the preceding term by the multiplication of a non-zero constant, which is the common ratio. A geometric series is formed by the addition of the terms in a geometric progression.

Examples: 1) 3, 6, 9, 12, ... 2) 4, -8, 16, -32, ...

first term 3, common ratio 3 first term 4, common ratio -2

Let the first term be a and common ratio be r.

*General form of a G. P.: a, ar, ar2, ar3, ... *nth term of a G. P.= arn-1 *Sum to first n terms of a G. P.:

*Geometric mean. When x, y and z are consecutive numbers in a G. P.,

y2 = xz
y is the geometric mean

CAUCHY SEQUENCE

In mathematics, a Cauchy sequence, named after Augustin Cauchy, is a sequence whose elements become arbitrarily close to each other as the sequence progresses. To be more precise, by dropping enough (but still only a finite number of) terms from the start of the sequence, it is possible to make the maximum of the distances from any of the remaining elements to any other such element smaller than any preassigned, necessarily positive, value.

In other words, suppose a pre-assigned positive real value is chosen. However small is, starting from a Cauchy sequence and eliminating terms one by one from the start, after a finite number of steps, any pair chosen from the remaining terms will be within distance of each other.

The utility of Cauchy sequences lies in the fact that in a complete metric space (one where all such sequences are known to converge to a limit), they give a criterion for convergence which depends only on the terms of the sequence itself. This is often exploited in algorithms, both theoretical and applied, where an iterative process can be shown relatively easily to produce a Cauchy sequence, consisting of the iterates.

The notions above are not as unfamiliar as might at first appear. The customary acceptance of the fact that any real number x has a decimal expansion is an implicit acknowledgment that a particular Cauchy sequence of rational numbers (whose terms are the successive truncations of the decimal expansion of x) has the real limit x. In some cases it may be difficult to describe x independently of such a limiting process involving rational numbers.

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