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The geometric series is an infinite series derived from a special type of sequence called a geometric progression.This means that it is the sum of infinitely many terms of geometric progression: starting from the initial term , and the next one being the initial term multiplied by a constant number known as the common ratio .
The geometric series on the real line. In mathematics, the infinite series 1 / 2 + 1 / 4 + 1 / 8 + 1 / 16 + ··· is an elementary example of a geometric series that converges absolutely. The sum of the series is 1. In summation notation, this may be expressed as
Examples of a geometric sequence are powers r k of a fixed non-zero number r, such as 2 k and 3 k. The general form of a geometric sequence is , , , , , … where r is the common ratio and a is the initial value. The sum of a geometric progression's terms is called a geometric series.
An infinite series of any rational function of can be reduced to a finite series of polygamma functions, by use of partial fraction decomposition, [8] as explained here. This fact can also be applied to finite series of rational functions, allowing the result to be computed in constant time even when the series contains a large number of terms.
In mathematics, 1 + 2 + 4 + 8 + ⋯ is the infinite series whose terms are the successive powers of two. As a geometric series, it is characterized by its first term, 1, and its common ratio, 2. As a series of real numbers it diverges to infinity, so the sum of this series is infinity.
The same geometric strategy also works for triangles, as in the figure on the right: [4] if the large triangle has area 1, then the largest black triangle has area 1 / 4 , and so on. The figure as a whole has a self-similarity between the large triangle and its upper sub-triangle.
Similarly, in a series, any finite rearrangements of terms of a series does not change the limit of the partial sums of the series and thus does not change the sum of the series: for any finite rearrangement, there will be some term after which the rearrangement did not affect any further terms: any effects of rearrangement can be isolated to ...
A summation method that is linear and stable cannot sum the series 1 + 2 + 3 + ⋯ to any finite value. (Stable means that adding a term at the beginning of the series increases the sum by the value of the added term.) This can be seen as follows. If + + + =, then adding 0 to both sides gives