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1
or
just (a
n
).
2. As a function f : N R. The corresponding list of numbers is f(1), f(2), . . . ,
i.e. a
n
= f(n).
Examples:
1
n
denotes 1,
1
2
,
1
3
, . . . ,
1
n
, . . .
1
2
n
denotes
1
2
,
1
2
2
,
1
2
3
, . . . ,
1
2
n
, . . .
((1)
n
) denotes 1, 1, 1, . . . , (1)
n
, . . .
We are often interested in the long term behaviour of such a sequence does it grow
without bound, or does it oscillate between two values, or does it settle down towards
one particular value? One way to get an idea of such behaviour is to plot the sequence
entries.
2 4 6 8 10
2
4
6
8
10
2 4 6 8
1.0
0.5
0.5
1.0
(a) a
n
= n grows without bound (b) a
n
= (1)
n
oscillates between 1
What does a
n
= 1/n do?
5 10 15 20
0.1
0.2
0.3
0.4
0.5
(c) a
n
=
1
n
falls towards zero.
3 Convergence of a Sequence
The Archimedean Property helps make precise this notion of falling towards zero. Let
be a positive number that we wish to use as a measure of closeness to zero. We ask
whether the 1/n numbers will approach within a distance of from zero. Since > 0,
the Archimedean Property tells us that there is N N such that
1
N
< . Moreover,
for any natural number n beyond this N (n N) we have
1
n
<
1
N
< .
0 5 10 15 20
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
1.0
a
n
=
1
n
approaches and stays as close to zero as you like. In this gure we have
taken = 0.1 so that N = 11 does the required job.
This observation about 1/n motivates our general idea of what it means for a sequence
to settle towards one value. The technical word we will use for this is convergence
and we dene it below:
Denition of Convergence of a Sequence: Let (a
n
) be a sequence of real numbers,
and L a real number. We say that (a
n
) converges to L if for every real number > 0
there is an N N such that n N implies
L < a
n
< L +
Remark: The condition L < a
n
< L + can also be written as |a
n
L| < .
0 5 10 15
0.5
1.0
1.5
2.0
This is an example of a sequence that approaches /2. In this gure we have taken
= 0.2. The sequence keeps jumping towards and then away from /2, but after
N = 15 it is always in the -band around /2.
4 Examples of Convergence
In this section, we will see how to prove that a sequence converges to a certain number.
The rst step is to look closely at the terms of the sequence and guess what the limit
is likely to be. The second step is to do a formal proof that conrms this guess.
Lets start with the sequence a
n
= 1/n. Obviously our guess is that it converges to
zero.
The sequence a
n
= 1/n converges to zero.
Proof: Consider any real number > 0. From the Archimedean Property of R there
is a natural number N such that
1
N
<
Then
n N =
1
n
<
1
N
< = < a
n
=
1
n
< = |a
n
0| <
2
Now we consider the sequence b
n
=
1
2
n
. Its plot is:
2 4 6 8 10
0.1
0.2
0.3
0.4
0.5
The sequence b
n
= 1/2
n
also appears to fall towards zero. In fact, comparing with the
plot for a
n
= 1/n, we see that 1/2
n
seems to fall faster towards zero.
The sequence b
n
= 1/2
n
converges to zero.
Proof: First we establish that for every natural number n,
1
2
n
<
1
n
. This can be easily
done by Mathematical Induction and was left as an exercise for the students. You
should ask your tutor in case of any diculty. We assume you can do this and proceed
with the rest of the proof.
Consider any real number > 0. We have already established that there is a natural
number N such that
n N =
1
n
<
But then:
n N =
1
2
n
<
1
n
< = < b
n
=
1
2
n
< = |b
n
0| <
2
In this proof we used the convergence of 1/n to establish the convergence of 1/2
n
. We
will see repeatedly that 1/n is a basic tool for studying convergence of more complicated
sequences.