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S=sum of (-1)^n/n from 1 to infty

For why I named the post as so, here's why

spoiler

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[-] siriusmart@lemmy.world 4 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

Hint

spoilerThe solution I have in mind is related to the Taylor series


Hint 2

spoilerIt converges to -ln(2), but why


Solution:

spoilerhttps://gmtex.siri.sh/fs/1/School/Extra/Maths/Qotd%20solutions/2024-06-02-alternating_harmonic.html

[-] wisha@lemmy.ml 4 points 3 months ago

spoilerln(2) because the Taylor series for ln(1+x) evaluated at x=1 is exactly this series.
Good one. Thanks for posting!

[-] siriusmart@lemmy.world 3 points 3 months ago

yup thats the intended solution, im not really familiar with taylor series yet, but maybe for a person who knows taylor series would be able to see it right away

[-] quilan@lemmy.world 2 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

There closest I was able to do on the fly was to show that the ::: pairwise sum has an integral of -ln(2)/2 ::: but that was pretty hand wavy. I'll have to check how it's actually done.

[-] DarkNightoftheSoul@mander.xyz 1 points 3 months ago

minus one plus a half minus a third plus a quarter... this converges to a value somewhere between 0 and -1, but I dont know how to get more precision without just running this out by hand a bunch more.

this post was submitted on 02 Jun 2024
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