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The series = + = + + is known as the alternating harmonic series. It is conditionally convergent by the alternating series test , but not absolutely convergent . Its sum is the natural logarithm of 2 .
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.
Like any series, an alternating series is a convergent series if and only if the sequence of partial sums of the series converges to a limit. The alternating series test guarantees that an alternating series is convergent if the terms a n converge to 0 monotonically, but this condition is not necessary for convergence.
For instance, rearranging the terms of the alternating harmonic series so that each positive term of the original series is followed by two negative terms of the original series rather than just one yields [34] + + + = + + + = + + + = (+ + +), which is times the original series, so it would have a sum of half of the natural logarithm of 2. By ...
If a series is convergent but not absolutely convergent, it is called conditionally convergent. An example of a conditionally convergent series is the alternating harmonic series. Many standard tests for divergence and convergence, most notably including the ratio test and the root test, demonstrate absolute convergence.
In a third layer, the logarithms of rational numbers r = a / b are computed with ln(r) = ln(a) − ln(b), and logarithms of roots via ln n √ c = 1 / n ln(c).. The logarithm of 2 is useful in the sense that the powers of 2 are rather densely distributed; finding powers 2 i close to powers b j of other numbers b is comparatively easy, and series representations of ln(b) are ...
The alternating harmonic series is a classic example of a conditionally convergent series: = + is convergent, whereas = | + | = = is the ordinary harmonic series, which diverges. Although in standard presentation the alternating harmonic series converges to ln(2) , its terms can be arranged to converge to any number, or even to diverge.
A classic example is the alternating harmonic series given by + + = = +, which converges to (), but is not absolutely convergent (see Harmonic series). Bernhard Riemann proved that a conditionally convergent series may be rearranged to converge to any value at all, including ∞ or −∞; see Riemann series theorem .