009C Sample Midterm 2, Problem 1

Evaluate:

a) $\lim _{n\rightarrow \infty }{\frac {1}{{\big (}{\frac {n-4}{n}}{\big )}^{n}}}$

b) $\sum _{n=1}^{\infty }{\frac {1}{2}}{\bigg (}{\frac {1}{4}}{\bigg )}^{n-1}$

Foundations:
1. L'Hôpital's Rule
Suppose that $\lim _{x\rightarrow \infty }f(x)$  and $\lim _{x\rightarrow \infty }g(x)$  are both zero or both $\pm \infty .$
If $\lim _{x\rightarrow \infty }{\frac {f'(x)}{g'(x)}}$  is finite or  $\pm \infty ,$
then $\lim _{x\rightarrow \infty }{\frac {f(x)}{g(x)}}\,=\,\lim _{x\rightarrow \infty }{\frac {f'(x)}{g'(x)}}.$
2. The sum of a convergent geometric series is   ${\frac {a}{1-r}}$
where $r$ is the ratio of the geometric series
and $a$ is the first term of the series.

Solution:

(a)

Step 1:
Let         ${\begin{array}{rcl}\displaystyle {y}&=&\displaystyle {\lim _{n\rightarrow \infty }{\bigg (}{\frac {n-4}{n}}{\bigg )}^{n}}\\&&\\&=&\displaystyle {\lim _{n\rightarrow \infty }{\bigg (}1-{\frac {4}{n}}{\bigg )}^{n}.}\end{array}}$
We then take the natural log of both sides to get
$\ln y=\ln {\bigg (}\lim _{n\rightarrow \infty }{\bigg (}1-{\frac {4}{n}}{\bigg )}^{n}{\bigg )}.$

Step 2:
We can interchange limits and continuous functions.
Therefore, we have
${\begin{array}{rcl}\displaystyle {\ln y}&=&\displaystyle {\lim _{n\rightarrow \infty }\ln {\bigg (}1-{\frac {4}{n}}{\bigg )}^{n}}\\&&\\&=&\displaystyle {\lim _{n\rightarrow \infty }n\ln {\bigg (}1-{\frac {4}{n}}{\bigg )}}\\&&\\&=&\displaystyle {\lim _{n\rightarrow \infty }{\frac {\ln {\bigg (}1-{\frac {4}{n}}{\bigg )}}{\frac {1}{n}}}.}\end{array}}$
Now, this limit has the form ${\frac {0}{0}}.$
Hence, we can use L'Hopital's Rule to calculate this limit.

Step 3:
Now, we have
${\begin{array}{rcl}\displaystyle {\ln y}&=&\displaystyle {\lim _{n\rightarrow \infty }{\frac {\ln {\bigg (}1-{\frac {4}{n}}{\bigg )}}{\frac {1}{n}}}}\\&&\\&=&\displaystyle {\lim _{x\rightarrow \infty }{\frac {\ln {\bigg (}1-{\frac {4}{x}}{\bigg )}}{\frac {1}{x}}}}\\&&\\&{\overset {L'H}{=}}&\displaystyle {\lim _{x\rightarrow \infty }{\frac {{\frac {1}{{\big (}1-{\frac {4}{x}}{\big )}}}{\frac {4}{x^{2}}}}{{\big (}-{\frac {1}{x^{2}}}{\big )}}}}\\&&\\&=&\displaystyle {\lim _{x\rightarrow \infty }{\frac {-4x}{x-4}}}\\&&\\&=&\displaystyle {-4.}\end{array}}$

Step 4:
Since $\ln y=-4,$ we know
$y=e^{-4}.$
Now, we have
${\begin{array}{rcl}\displaystyle {\lim _{n\rightarrow \infty }{\frac {1}{{\big (}{\frac {n-4}{n}}{\big )}^{n}}}}&=&\displaystyle {\frac {\lim _{n\rightarrow \infty }1}{\lim _{n\rightarrow \infty }{\big (}{\frac {n-4}{n}}{\big )}^{n}}}\\&&\\&=&\displaystyle {\frac {1}{e^{-4}}}\\&&\\&=&\displaystyle {e^{4}.}\end{array}}$

(b)

Step 1:
First, we not that this is a geometric series with $r={\frac {1}{4}}.$
Since $|r|={\frac {1}{4}}<1,$
this series converges.

Step 2:
Now, we need to find the sum of this series.
The first term of the series is $a_{1}={\frac {1}{2}}.$
Hence, the sum of the series is
${\begin{array}{rcl}\displaystyle {\frac {a_{1}}{1-r}}&=&\displaystyle {\frac {\frac {1}{2}}{1-{\frac {1}{4}}}}\\&&\\&=&\displaystyle {\frac {{\big (}{\frac {1}{2}}{\big )}}{{\big (}{\frac {3}{4}}{\big )}}}\\&&\\&=&\displaystyle {{\frac {2}{3}}.}\end{array}}$

Final Answer:
(a)     $e^{4}$
(b)     ${\frac {2}{3}}$

Return to Sample Exam