2

Question:

Prove the following statement by induction for all $n \in \mathbb{N}$:

$$\sum_{k=1}^{2n-1} \frac{(-1)^{k + 1}}{k} = \sum_{k=n}^{2n-1} \frac{1}{k}$$

My Attempt:

Base Case: For $n = 1, \sum_{k=1}^1 \frac{(-1)^{k+1}}{k} = \sum_{k=1}^1 \frac{1}{k} = 1.$

Inductive Step:

\begin{align} \sum_{k=1}^{2(n+1)-1} \frac{(-1)^{k+1}}{k} &= \sum_{k=1}^{2n+1} \frac{(-1)^{k+1}}{k} \\ &= \sum_{k=1}^{2n-1} \frac{(-1)^{k+1}}{k} + \frac{(-1)^{2n+1}}{2n} + \frac{(-1)^{2n+2}}{2n+1} \\ &= \sum_{k=n}^{2n-1} \frac{1}{k} - \frac{1}{2n} + \frac{1}{2n + 1} \end{align}

The issue here is that I'm not really sure how to go from that equation to $\sum_{k=n+1}^{2n+1} \frac{1}{k}$. I'd really appreciate it if you could guide me in the right direction.

Noah
  • 55
  • 2

1 Answers1

4

You just need to write $\sum_{k=n}^{2n-1}{\frac{1}{k}} = \sum_{k=n+1}^{2n+1}{\frac{1}{k}}+\frac{1}{n}-\frac{1}{2n}-\frac{1}{2n+1} = \sum_{k=n+1}^{2n+1}{\frac{1}{k}}+\frac{1}{2n}-\frac{1}{2n+1}$

The last two terms will be canceled by the remaining terms in your derivation.

Mehdi
  • 596