practice problems pending
Q1. Show that (1 - 1/2^2)(1 - 1/3^2)....(1 - 1/(n+1)^2) = n+2/2n+2 S1. Easy to show via induction. Other way via telescopic cancellations: Kth term is (k^2 - 1)/k^2 = (k-1)(k+1)/k^2 = (k-1)/k.(k+1)/k Now separate out k-1/k and k+1/k terms and multiply: 2-1/2 * 3-1/3 * 4-1/4 .... n/n+1 = 1/n+1 2+1/2 * 3+1/3 ... n+2/n+1 = n+2/2 Hence proved. Q2. Show that: S2. Short method: r*nCr = n*(n-1)C(r-1) and take sigma simply. Longer method: 2^(n-1) = (n-1)C0 + (n-1)C1... (n-1)C(n-1) (n-1)Ck *n = nCk*(n-k) How? n * (n-1)!/k!(n-1-k)! = n! /k!(n-k-1)! But (n-k-1)! = (n-k)!/(n-k) So n * (n-1)!/k!(n-1-k)! = (n-k)n! /k!(n-k)! = nCk*(n-k) So n*2^(n-1) = n *2^(n-1) = n*[(n-1)C0 + (n-1)C1... (n-1)C(n-2)+ (n-1)C(n-1)] = nC0 * (n-0) + nC1*(n-1) ... nC(n-2)*(2)+ nC(n-1)*(1) It can be rewritten as: = nCn*n + nC1 * (n-1) ... nC2 * 2 + nC1 * 1 = (r = 1 to n)Sigma(r*nCr) = (r = 0 to n)Sigma(r*nCr) Hence proved. Q3. S3. Quite simple. Let the given sum be S. 3S = 1.3^2 + 2.3^3... n.3^(n+1) S-3S = 3 + 3^2 ......