Calculus: Early Transcendentals 8th Edition

Published by Cengage Learning
ISBN 10: 1285741552
ISBN 13: 978-1-28574-155-0

Chapter 11 - Section 11.2 - Series - 11.2 Exercises - Page 716: 46

Answer

Answer : $\frac{1}{2}$

Work Step by Step

This is basically telescoping series after we expand a few terms such that $\sum_{n = 4}^{k} (\frac{1}{\sqrt{n}} = \frac{1}{\sqrt{n+1}})=(\frac{1}{\sqrt{4}}-\frac{1}{\sqrt{5}}) + (\frac{1}{\sqrt{5}} - \frac{1}{\sqrt{6}}) + (\frac{1}{\sqrt{6}}-\frac{1}{\sqrt{7}}) + \cdots+(\frac{1}{\sqrt{k-1}} - \frac{1}{\sqrt{k}}) + (\frac{1}{\sqrt{k}} - \frac{1}{\sqrt{k+1}})$ We can see that the terms in between cancel out and the series left with $\sum_{n=4}^{k} (\frac{1}{\sqrt{n}} - \frac{1}{\sqrt{n + 1}}) = \frac{1}{\sqrt{4}} - \frac{1}{\sqrt{k + 1}}$ Now by limiting $k$ approaches $\infty$, we finally get that $\lim_{k\to\infty}\sum_{n=4}^{k} (\frac{1}{\sqrt{n}} - \frac{1}{\sqrt{n + 1}}) = \frac{1}{\sqrt{4}} - 0 = \frac{1}{2}$
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