Welson’s Question.

Use the alternating series test to prove that the following converges
n
X 1
lim − ln (n). (1)
n→∞ k
k=1

1
 Hint 1.

(1) doesn’t look like a sum just yet (only half of it is!), so you can’t apply the alternating
series test directly. The question is: how can you turn ln (∞) into a sum? The first step to
accomplishing this is to think about writing ln (∞) as an indefinite integral, that is:
Z ∞
ln (∞) = ?? dx.(2) (1)
1

That is, what do you have to integrate to get ln?

2
 Hint 2.

I’ll provide the answer for (2) just in case you couldn’t figure it out.
Z ∞
1
ln (∞) = dx,
1 x

because, Z ∞
1 x=∞
dx = ln xx=1 = ln (∞) − ln (1),
1 x
and ln (1) = 0.
R∞ 1
1 x dx still doesn’t look like a sum (but we’re getting close!), you can use the following formula
to accomplish this:
Z b Z n Z b
f (x) dx = f (x) dx + f (x) dx
a a n
for any numbers a, b, and n such that a < n < b.

3
 Hint 3.
R∞ 1
The correct way to turn 1 x dx into a sum is:
Z ∞ Z 2 Z 3 Z 4
1 1 1 1
dx = dx + dx + dx + · · ·
1 x 1 x 2 x 3 x
∞ Z n+1
X 1
= dx.
n x
n=1

Now (1) is just the addition of two infinite sums! (which, if you think about it, is just one
infinite sum). Now that we know (1) can be written as a sum, we write down the first few
terms. Z 2 Z 3 Z 4
1 1 1 1 1
(1) = 1 + + + · · · − dx − dx − dx − · · ·
2 3 1 x 2 x 3 x
This infinite sum is not alternating, so we can’t use the alternating series test just yet, to fix this,
can you think of some way of rearranging the terms of this series to so that we get something
alternating?

4
 Hint 4.

The correct way to rearrange this series is:

Z 2 Z 3 Z 4
1 1 1 1 1
(1) = 1 − dx + − dx + − dx + · · ·
1 x 2 2 x 3 3 x

All that’s left is to apply the alternating series test.

5
 Hint 5. (Last Hint!)

The first step of the alternating series test is:

If ∞ n+1 a is your series, show that lim

P
1 (−1) n n→∞ an = 0. In our series, the term an as n → ∞
1
R n+1 1
fluctuates between n and n x dx. This fluctuation doesn’t matter because both n1 and
R n+1 1 R n+1 1
n x dx individually converge to 0 as n → ∞ (prove it for n x dx because 1/n = 0 as
n → ∞ is obvious enough), so really, as n → ∞, an fluctuates between zero, and... zero, so
reaallly, limn→∞ an = 0.

The next step of the alternating series

R 2 1 test requires
R 2 1 us to show that an > an+1 for all n? Think
about the first two terms, 1 and 1 x dx, is 1 x dx less than 1?
R2
Think about 1 x1 dx as representing the area under the curve y = 1/x between the interval
from x = 1 till x = 2 (now would be a good time to start drawing). ShadeR that area, and then
2
draw a 1x1 square (whose area is 1) that overlaps it. Now is it clear that 1 x1 dx less than 1?

Convince yourself that this should work for all the other terms, not just the first two.

And there you have it,

n
X 1
lim − ln (n). (1)
n→∞ k
k=1

converges to some value as n → ∞. Wonder what value it is? It’s called the euler-mascheroni
constant whose approximate value is 0.57721... This number has many applications, I encourage
you to visit the wikipedia page for more information.