5

How can I find the closed-form of? $$\frac{1}{1}+\frac{1}{1+2^2}+\frac{1}{1+2^2+3^2}+.....$$ Any help thanks

E.H.E
  • 23,280

2 Answers2

10

Hint: The $n$-th term in the series is $\dfrac{1}{\sum_{k=1}^n k^2}=\dfrac{6}{n(n+1)(2n+1)}$. Use partial fractions.

lhf
  • 216,483
3

hypergeometric has a good idea, but we cannot work with divergent series this way. Similar rearrangements can give wrong answers. But taking hypergeometric's ideas, a valid proof looks like this:

$$ \begin{align} \log 2 &= \sum_{n=1}^\infty\left(\frac{1}{2n-1}- \frac{1}{2n}\right) \\ \sum_{n=1}^N \frac{1}{\sum_{r=1}^n r^2} &= \sum_{n=1}^N \frac{6}{n(n+1)(2n+1)} \\ &= 12 \sum_{n=1}^N \left(\frac{1}{2n} + \frac{1}{2n+2} - \frac{2}{2n+1}\right) \\ &= 12 \sum_{n=1}^N \frac{1}{2n} + 12\left(-\frac{1}{2}+\frac{1}{2N+2}+\sum_{n=1}^N \frac{1}{2n}\right) - 24\left(-1+\frac{1}{2N+1}+\sum_{n=1}^N\frac{1}{2n-1}\right) \\ &= 12\left(-\frac{1}{2}+\frac{2}{2N+2}+2+\frac{1}{2N+1}\right) -24\sum_{n=1}^N\left(\frac{1}{2n-1}-\frac{1}{2n}\right) \\ \lim_{N \to \infty}\sum_{n=1}^N \frac{1}{\sum_{r=1}^n r^2} &= 18-24\log 2 \end{align} $$

GEdgar
  • 111,679