Re: Unknown Sum of Series
- To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
- Subject: [mg63680] Re: Unknown Sum of Series
- From: Paul Abbott <paul at physics.uwa.edu.au>
- Date: Mon, 9 Jan 2006 04:50:10 -0500 (EST)
- Organization: The University of Western Australia
- References: <dpb3vu$9tg$1@smc.vnet.net>
- Sender: owner-wri-mathgroup at wolfram.com
In article <dpb3vu$9tg$1 at smc.vnet.net>, "Klaus G." <Karl_boehme_9 at msn.com> wrote: > Mathematica 5.0 is not able to compute the symbolic sum: > > Sum[(-1)^(1 + n)*(E - ( 1 + (1/n))^n ), {n, 1, Infinity}] > > However, Nsum[...] results in 0.4456224031968407.. > > I tried http://oldweb.cecm.sfu.ca/projects/ISC/ to find hidden > constants in that number like Pi or E, but without success. > > Any idea? Since (1 + (1/n))^n == Exp[n Log[1 + 1/n]] then using the generating function for Stirling Numbers of the first kind http://functions.wolfram.com/04.14.11.0005.01 I can find a formal representation for this sum as (1/2) Log[2] E + Sum[StirlingS1[p + l, l]/(p + l)! (2^(1 - p) - 1) Zeta[p], {l, 0, Infinity}, {p, 2, Infinity}] However, the convergence of this double sum is very slow and is probably not useful to you. Cheers, Paul _______________________________________________________________________ Paul Abbott Phone: 61 8 6488 2734 School of Physics, M013 Fax: +61 8 6488 1014 The University of Western Australia (CRICOS Provider No 00126G) AUSTRALIA http://physics.uwa.edu.au/~paul