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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
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 first four partial sums of 1 + 2 + 4 + 8 + ⋯. 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.
Diagram illustrating three basic geometric sequences of the pattern 1(r n−1) up to 6 iterations deep.The first block is a unit block and the dashed line represents the infinite sum of the sequence, a number that it will forever approach but never touch: 2, 3/2, and 4/3 respectively.
Today, a more standard phrasing of Archimedes' proposition is that the partial sums of the series 1 + 1 / 4 + 1 / 16 + ⋯ are: + + + + = +. This form can be proved by multiplying both sides by 1 − 1 / 4 and observing that all but the first and the last of the terms on the left-hand side of the equation cancel in pairs.
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.
Similarly, in a series, any finite groupings of terms of the series will not change the limit of the partial sums of the series and thus will not change the sum of the series. However, if an infinite number of groupings is performed in an infinite series, then the partial sums of the grouped series may have a different limit than the original ...
Because the sequence of partial sums fails to converge to a finite limit, the series does not have a sum. Although the series seems at first sight not to have any meaningful value at all, it can be manipulated to yield a number of different mathematical results.
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