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  • - [Instructor] So here we have three different series.

  • And what I would like you to do is pause this video,

  • and think about whether each of them converges or diverges.

  • All right, now let's work on this together.

  • So, just as a refresher, converge means

  • that even though you're summing up

  • an infinite number of terms in all of these cases,

  • if they converge, that means you actually get

  • a finite value for that infinite sum,

  • or that infinite number of terms being summed up,

  • which I always find somewhat amazing.

  • And diverging means that you're not going to get

  • an actual finite value for the sum

  • of all of the infinite terms.

  • So how do we think about that?

  • Well, we already know something about geometric series,

  • and these look kind of like geometric series.

  • So let's just remind ourselves what we already know.

  • We know that a geometric series,

  • the standard way of writing it is

  • we're starting n equals,

  • typical you'll often see n is equal to zero,

  • but let's say we're starting at some constant.

  • And then you're going to have,

  • you're gonna go to infinity of a times r to the n,

  • where r is our common ratio,

  • we've talked about that in depth in other videos.

  • We know, this is the standard way

  • to write a geometric series.

  • We know that if the absolute value of r

  • is between zero, is between zero and one,

  • then this thing is going to converge, converge.

  • And if it doesn't, I'll just write it else,

  • it will diverge.

  • So maybe a good path would be,

  • hey, can we rewrite these expressions

  • that we're trying to take, that are defining

  • each of our terms as we increment n,

  • if we can rewrite it in this form,

  • then we can identify the common ratio

  • and think about whether it converges or diverges.

  • So I'm going to focus on this part right over here.

  • Let's see if I can rewrite that.

  • So let's see, can I rewrite, let's see,

  • five to the n minus one, I can rewrite that

  • as five to the n times five to the negative one,

  • and then that's gonna be times 9/10 to the n.

  • And let's see, this is going to be equal to,

  • going to be, I can just write this

  • as this part right over here.

  • I'll write it as 1/5, that's the same thing

  • as five to the negative one

  • times, and then five to the n and 9/10 to the n,

  • well, I have the same exponent, so I can rewrite that as,

  • and we're multiplying all this stuff,

  • I'm just switching the order,

  • this is the same thing as five times 9/10 to the nth power.

  • And so this is going to be equal to 1/5 times,

  • well five times nine is 45 divided by 10

  • is going to be 4.5, so times 4.5 to the nth power.

  • So that original series I can rewrite as,

  • just for good measure, I'm starting at n equals two,

  • I'm going to infinity, and this can be rewritten

  • as 1/5 times 4.5 to the n.

  • So what's our common ratio, what's our r here?

  • Well, you can see very clearly, it is 4.5.

  • The absolute value of 4.5 is clearly

  • not between zero and one.

  • So this is a situation where we are going to diverge.

  • Now if you found that inspiring,

  • and if you weren't able to do it the first time

  • I asked you to pause the video,

  • try to pause the video again and try to work these out now,

  • now that you've seen an example.

  • All right, let's jump into it.

  • So I'm just gonna try algebraically manipulate this part

  • to get it into this form.

  • So let's do that.

  • So I can rewrite this, let's see,

  • if I can get some things just to the nth power,

  • so I can rewrite it as 3/2 to the nth power,

  • and I could write this part right over here as

  • times one over nine to the nth times nine squared.

  • This is going to be equal to

  • 3/2 to the n.

  • And let's see, I could factor out or bring out

  • the one over nine squared, so let me do that.

  • So I'll write that as one over 81, I'll write it out there,

  • so that's this part right over there.

  • 1/81 times 3/2 to the n

  • times one over nine to the n.

  • But one over nine to the n, that is the same thing

  • as one over nine all of that to the nth power.

  • And the reason why I did that is now I have both

  • of these things to the nth power,

  • and I can do just what I did over here before.

  • So this is all going to be equal to one over 81

  • times 3/2 times 1/9

  • to the nth power.

  • These are just exponent properties

  • that I am applying right over here.

  • And so this is going to be equal to one over 81

  • times, let's see, 3/2 times 1/9 is

  • 3/18 which is the same thing as 1/6,

  • times 1/6 to the nth power.

  • If I were to rewrite the original series,

  • it's the sum from n equals five to infinity of,

  • of, now I can rewrite it as one over 81

  • times 1/6 to the nth power.

  • This is our common ratio, 1/6, very clearly.

  • I'll do that in this light blue color, 1/6.

  • That absolute value is clearly between zero and one,

  • so this is a situation where we will converge, converge.

  • Now let's do this last example.

  • I'll do this one a little bit faster.

  • So let's see, I could, if I'm just trying

  • to algebraically manipulate that part there,

  • that's going to be the same thing as two to the nth power

  • times one over three to the n

  • times three to the negative one.

  • Well, this is going to be the same thing as two to the n

  • times one over, why did I write equals?

  • Times one over three to the n.

  • And one over three to the negative one,

  • that's the same thing as one over 1/3,

  • that's just going to be equal to three times three.

  • Well, that's going to be equal to,

  • I'll give myself some space, we'll start out here.

  • That's equal to, I'll put the three out front,

  • three times two to the n times,

  • and one over three to the n is the same thing

  • as 1/3 to the nth power.

  • And so this is going to be equal to three times

  • two times 1/3, all that to the nth power.

  • And so that's going to be equal to three times

  • 2/3 to the nth power.

  • So we just simplify this part right over here

  • to three times 2/3 to the nth power.

  • We can see that our common ratio is 2/3,

  • so the absolute value of 2/3 is clearly

  • between zero and one.

  • So once again, we are going to converge, converge.

  • And we're done.

- [Instructor] So here we have three different series.

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