All AP Calculus BC Resources
Example Questions
Example Question #2 : Series Of Constants
Determine whether the following series converges or diverges:
The series (absolutely) converges
The series conditionally converges
The series diverges
The series may (absolutely) converge, diverge, or conditionally converge
The series (absolutely) converges
Given just the harmonic series, we would state that the series diverges. However, we are given the alternating harmonic series. To determine whether this series will converge or diverge, we must use the Alternating Series test.
The test states that for a given series where or where for all n, if and is a decreasing sequence, then is convergent.
First, we must evaluate the limit of as n approaches infinity:
The limit equals zero because the numerator of the fraction equals zero as n approaches infinity.
Next, we must determine if is a decreasing sequence. , thus the sequence is decreasing.
Because both parts of the test passed, the series is (absolutely) convergent.
Example Question #1 : Alternating Series
Determine whether
converges or diverges, and explain why.
Divergent, by the test for divergence.
Convergent, by the alternating series test.
More tests are needed.
Divergent, by the comparison test.
Convergent, by the -series test.
Convergent, by the alternating series test.
We can use the alternating series test to show that
converges.
We must have for in order to use this test. This is easy to see because is in for all (the values of this sequence are ), and sine is always nonzero whenever sine's argument is in .
Now we must show that
1.
2. is a decreasing sequence.
The limit
implies that
so the first condition is satisfied.
We can show that is decreasing by taking its derivative and showing that it is less than for :
The derivative is less than , because is always less than , and that is positive for , using a similar argument we used to prove that for . Since the derivative is less than , is a decreasing sequence. Now we have shown that the two conditions are satisfied, so we have proven that
converges, by the alternating series test.
Example Question #1 : Alternating Series With Error Bound
For the series: , determine if the series converge or diverge. If it diverges, choose the best reason.
The series given is an alternating series.
Write the three rules that are used to satisfy convergence in an alternating series test.
For :
The first and second conditions are satisfied since the terms are positive and are decreasing after each term.
However, the third condition is not valid since and instead approaches infinity.
The correct answer is:
Example Question #1 : Alternating Series With Error Bound
Determine whether the series converges or diverges:
The series is divergent.
The series may be convergent, divergent, or conditionally convergent.
The series is conditionally convergent.
The series is (absolutely) convergent.
The series is divergent.
To determine whether the series converges or diverges, we must use the Alternating Series test, which states that for
- and where for all n - to converge,
must equal zero and must be a decreasing series.
For our series,
because it behaves like
.
The test fails because so we do not need to check the second condition of the test.
The series is divergent.
Example Question #71 : Ap Calculus Bc
Which of the following series does not converge?
We can show that the series diverges using the ratio test.
will dominate over since it's a higher order term. Clearly, L will not be less than, which is necessary for absolute convergence.
Alternatively, it's clear that is much greater than , and thus having in the numerator will make the series diverge by the limit test (since the terms clearly don't converge to zero).
The other series will converge by alternating series test, ratio test, geometric series, and comparison tests.
Example Question #1 : Concepts Of Convergence And Divergence
One of the following infinite series CONVERGES. Which is it?
None of the others converge.
converges due to the comparison test.
We start with the equation . Since for all values of k, we can multiply both side of the equation by the inequality and get for all values of k. Since is a convergent p-series with , hence also converges by the comparison test.
Example Question #72 : Ap Calculus Bc
Determine the nature of convergence of the series having the general term:
The series is convergent.
The series is divergent.
The series is convergent.
We will use the Limit Comparison Test to establish this result.
We need to note that the following limit
goes to 1 as n goes to infinity.
Therefore the series have the same nature. They either converge or diverge at the same time.
We will focus on the series:
.
We know that this series is convergent because it is a p-series. (Remember that
converges if p>1 and we have p=3/2 which is greater that one in this case)
By the Limit Comparison Test, we deduce that the series is convergent, and that is what we needed to show.
Example Question #1 : P Series
Determine if the series converges or diverges. You do not need to find the sum.
Converges
There is not enough information to decide convergence.
Conditionally converges.
Diverges
Neither converges nor diverges.
Converges
We can compare this to the series which we know converges by the p-series test.
To figure this out, let's first compare to . For any number n, will be larger than .
There is a rule in math that if you take the reciprocal of each term in an inequality, you are allowed to flip the signs.
Thus, turns into
.
And so, because converges, thus our series also converges.
Example Question #73 : Ap Calculus Bc
Which of the following tests will help determine whether is convergent or divergent, and why?
Integral Test: The improper integral determines that the harmonic series diverge.
Root Test: Since the limit as approaches to infinity is zero, the series is convergent.
P-Series Test: The summation converges since .
Divergence Test: Since limit of the series approaches zero, the series must converge.
Nth Term Test: The series diverge because the limit as goes to infinity is zero.
Integral Test: The improper integral determines that the harmonic series diverge.
The series is a harmonic series.
The Nth term test and the Divergent test may not be used to determine whether this series converges, since this is a special case. The root test also does not apply in this scenario.
According the the P-series Test, must converge only if . Therefore this could be a valid test, but a wrong definition as the answer choice since the series diverge for .
This leaves us with the Integral Test.
Since the improper integral diverges, so does the series.
Example Question #72 : Polynomial Approximations And Series
Does the series converge conditionally, absolutely, or diverge?
Does not exist.
Converge Conditionally.
Cannot tell with the given information.
Converge Absolutely.
Diverges.
Converge Conditionally.
The series converges conditionally.
The absolute values of the series is a divergent p-series with .
However, the the limit of the sequence and it is a decreasing sequence.
Therefore, by the alternating series test, the series converges conditionally.