Dept.

of Mathematical and Computational Sciences, NITK, Surathkal

Engineering Mathematics 1 (MA 101)
http://murugan.nitk.ac.in/ma101

Instructors: S. George, V. Sinha, D. Sukumar and V. Murugan

Problem Sheet 1
1. Find first five terms of the following sequences
1−n 2n − 1 an
(i) an = 2
(ii) a n = n
(iii) a1 = 1 and an+1 =
n 2 n+1
an+1
(iv) a1 = 2, a2 = −1, an+2 = .
an
2. Find the formula for the n-th term of the sequence
(i) 1,-4,9,-16, . . . (ii) 0,3,8,15,24,. . .
3. Find the limit of the following sequences whose n-th term is given by the formula
(−1)n 2n 2n2 + 3
(i) (ii) (iii)
n+1 3n2 + 1 3n2 + 1
4. √
Find the limit of the sequence (an ) defined recursively by a1 = 0 and an+1 =
2 + an . What happens to the sequence if (i) a1 = 1 (ii) a1 = 2 (ii) a1 = 3.
5. Discuss the convergence of the sequence (an ) defined recursively by
an
(1) an+1 = 2 − 3an (2) a1 = 1 and an+1 = 1+an
.

6. Let a1 = 2, an+1 = 12 (an + a2n ), n = 1, 2, . . . Show that (an ) is decreasing and bounded
√
below by 2.
7. Show that if (an ) → a then (a2n ) → a2 . Is the converse true? Using this result, prove
(an bn ) → ab if an → a and bn → b
8. Let a1 = 1 and an+1 = 41 (2an + 3), ∀n. Show that (an ) is monotonically increasing
and bounded above. What is its limit?
 n  1/n
1 3n + 1
9. Find the limit of (i) an = 1 + → e (ii) an = .
n 3n − 1
 n
x
10. For any real number x, show that converges.
n!
11. Show that log n


n c → 0 for any c > 0.
12. Give a continuous function f (x) and a sequence (an ) such that f (an ) converges but
(an ) diverges.
13. Discuss the convergence of √ √
2
(i) sin2n n (ii) 2nn!3n (iii) nn!n (iv) n1/n (iv) (1 − n)1/n (iv) n − n + 1.
14. Give a sequence (an ) of positive numbers which converges but the sequence bn
diverges where bn = an+1
an
.