The notion of series is closely related to the sum of numbers. In fact, whenever one hears the word series, the first thing to come to mind is the sum of numbers. This is the basic difference between series and sequences. So series, as we will see, are here to help us add numbers. So what is the problem? Let us do a simple addition problem. Let me give 3 numbers: A, B and C. If I ask you to add them, you will take a pen and a paper or a calculator and do the following:
So, if you are given one million numbers, you will still enter one by
one to add all of them. A very simple operation, isn't it? Now what
would happen if you were given infinitely many numbers? What would you do?
Example: Add the numbers .
Answer: First we enter (into our calculator) the number
. The output will be
.
Then we add to it the next number on the list to get
.
Again we add to it the next number on the list
.
We keep on doing this to get
,
etc... For example, we have
.
So you will jump and say: Oh the numbers are getting closer and closer
to 1. We will see (in geometric series) that your answer is correct. But we should not
trust this kind of conclusion in general. We should be always ready
to check our conclusions.
The above example helps us to see how a person may add infinitely many
numbers. Indeed, let be a sequence of numbers (which we are
trying to add). Set
and for , we have
.
The new sequence is called the sequence of partial sums.
These are the numbers one will see on the screen of his or her calculator.
Any conclusion to the total sum of the given numbers will be made
subject to our observation of this sequence.
In order to make a difference between a given sequence which we may or
not be interested into adding its numbers, we introduce a new notation
which carries the problem we discussed above. The new symbol
will be used since it is very close to the meaning we are trying to
reach, that is, the sum of numbers. The notation commonly used for a
series is
and we will call it the series .
Remark: Remember that for a given series , we
naturally associate the sequence of partial sums
defined by
.
Tue Dec 3 17:39:00 MST 1996