Series Mathematics Definition of Series, Finite and Infinite Series


A series of numbers is said to be in harmonic sequence if the reciprocals of all the elements of the sequence form an arithmetic sequence. A sequence can be defined based on the number of terms i.e. either finite sequence or infinite sequence. Categorize the sequence as arithmetic or geometric, and then calculate the indicated sum.

Convergence of a Power Series

\(k\) is called the index of summation, \(1\) is the lower limit of summation, and \(n\) is the upper limit of summation. To find the total amount of money in the college fund and the sum of the amounts deposited, we need to add the amounts deposited each month and the amounts earned monthly. The written-out form above is called the “expanded” form of the series, in contrast with the more compact “sigma” notation.

How do you define a series?

Geometric Sequence and Series

If a countable series of vectors in a Banach space converges absolutely then it converges unconditionally, but the converse only holds in finite-dimensional Banach spaces (theorem of Dvoretzky & Rogers (1950)). Fourier series were being investigatedas the result of physical considerations at the same time thatGauss, Abel, and Cauchy were working out the theory of infiniteseries. Series for the expansion of sines and cosines, of multiplearcs in powers of the sine and cosine of the arc had been treated byJacob Bernoulli (1702) and his brother Johann Bernoulli (1701) and stillearlier by Vieta. Euler and Lagrange simplified the subject,as did Poinsot, Schröter, Glaisher, and Kummer. A series with a countable number of terms is called a finite series. A “sequence” (called a “progression” in British English) is an ordered list of numbers; the numbers in this ordered list are called the “elements” or the “terms” of the sequence.

It established simpler criteria of convergence, and the questions of remainders and the range of convergence. The most important example of a trigonometric series is the Fourier series of a function. A sequence may be named or referred to by an upper-case letter such as “A” or “S”. The terms of a sequence are usually named something like “ai” or “an”, with the subscripted letter “i” or “n” being the “index” or the counter. So the second term of a sequnce might be named “a2” (pronounced “ay-sub-two”), and “a12” would designate the twelfth term. In the following series we’ve stripped out the first two terms and the first four terms respectively.

A sequence is also known as progression and a series is developed by sequence. Sequence and series is one of the basic concepts in Arithmetic. Sequences are the grouped arrangement of numbers orderly and according to some specific rules, whereas a series is the sum of the elements in the sequence.

More specifically, if the variable is \(x\), then all the terms of the series involve powers of \(x\). As a result, a power series can be thought of as an infinite polynomial. Power series are used to represent common functions and also to define new functions. In this section we define power series and show how to determine when a power series converges and when it diverges.

Poisson (1820–23) also attacked the problem from adifferent standpoint. Fourier did not, however, settle the questionof convergence of his series, a matter left for Cauchy (1826) toattempt and for Dirichlet (1829) to handle in a thoroughlyscientific manner (see convergence of Fourier series). Dirichlet’s treatment (Crelle, 1829), of trigonometric series was the subject of criticism and improvement byRiemann (1854), Heine, Lipschitz, Schläfli, anddu Bois-Reymond.

Harmonic Sequences

Historically, mathematicians such as Leonhard Euler operated liberally with infinite series, even if they were not convergent. When calculus was put on a sound and correct foundation in the nineteenth century, rigorous proofs of the convergence of series were always required. In mathematics, we can describe a series as adding infinitely many numbers or quantities to a given starting number or amount. We use series in many areas of mathematics, even for studying finite structures, for example, combinatorics for forming functions.

Series are used throughout many different fields of study including mathematics (particularly calculus), physics, computer science, statistics, finance, and more. In the most common setting, the terms come from a commutative ring, so that the formal power series can be added term-by-term and multiplied via the Cauchy product. In summary, series addition and scalar multiplication gives the set of convergent series and the set of series of real numbers the structure of ffx a real vector space. Similarly, one gets complex vector spaces for series and convergent series of complex numbers. We’ll leave this section with an important warning about terminology.

For example, 2, 4, 6, 8 is a sequence with four elements and the corresponding series will be 2 + 4 + 6+ 8, where the sum of the series or value of the series will be 20. So, once again, a sequence is a list of numbers while a series is a single number, provided it makes sense to even compute the series. Students will often confuse the two and try to use facts pertaining to one on the other. There will be problems where we are using both sequences and series so we’ll always have to remember that they are different.

An arithmetic progression is one of the common examples of sequence and series. The terms between given terms of a geometric sequence are called geometric means21. We divide by \(2\) to find the formula for the sum of the first \(n\) terms of an arithmetic series. If we add these two expressions for the sum of the first \(n\) terms of an arithmetic series, we can derive a formula for the sum of the first \(n\) terms of any arithmetic series. A series of real or complex numbers is said to be conditionally convergent (or semi-convergent) if it is convergent but not absolutely convergent. Conditional convergence is tested for differently than absolute convergence.

Find the first 5 terms of the sequence defined by the given recurrence relation. A sequence is an arrangement of any objects or a set of numbers in a particular order followed by some rule. If a1, a2, a3, a4,……… etc. denote the terms of a sequence, then 1,2,3,4,…..denotes the position of the term.