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Geometric Series

Last updated Jan 17, 2022 Edit Source

If a sequence a can be written as:

$$ a_n = cr^n $$

Than this is sequence forms the geometric Series:

$$ S_k = \sum_{n=1}^k cr^n $$

Doing some algebra and some math magic we can derive a more general formula:

$$ S_k = a\frac{1-r^k}{1-r} $$

This series converges if $|r| \leq 1$. This is fairly obvious when you take the limit of the equation above:

$$ \lim_{k\to\infty} a\frac{1-r^k}{1-r}

a \lim_{k\to\infty} \frac{1-r^k}{1-r} $$

Since $r^k$ only goes to $0$ when $|r|$ is less than 1 it converges into:

$$ \frac{a}{1-r} $$

Otherwise, it is $DIV$.


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