RE: Simplifying Finite Sums With A Variable # of Terms
- To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
- Subject: [mg21793] RE: [mg21744] Simplifying Finite Sums With A Variable # of Terms
- From: "Harvey P. Dale" <hpd1 at is2.nyu.edu>
- Date: Thu, 27 Jan 2000 22:57:31 -0500 (EST)
- Sender: owner-wri-mathgroup at wolfram.com
Here's one way to do what I think you want to do. I'll show the
steps separately, and then put them all together.
First, generate the series of partial sums:
In[1]:= FoldList[Plus, 0, Range[10]]
Out[1]= {0, 1, 3, 6, 10, 15, 21, 28, 36, 45, 55}
Second, partition the list into groups of adjacent terms:
In[2]:= Partition[%, 2, 1]
Out[2]= {{0, 1}, {1, 3}, {3, 6}, {6, 10}, {10, 15}, {15, 21}, {21, 28},
{28, 36}, {36, 45}, {45, 55}}
Third, map the difference between adjacent terms into the list:
In[3]:= {#[[1]], #[[2]], #[[2]] - #[[1]]} & /@ %
Out[3]= {{0, 1, 1}, {1, 3, 2}, {3, 6, 3}, {6, 10, 4}, {10, 15, 5}, {15, 21,
6},
{21, 28, 7}, {28, 36, 8}, {36, 45, 9}, {45, 55, 10}}
Fourth, transpose the result and select the list of differences:
In[4]:= Transpose[%][[3]]
Out[4]= {1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10}
Putting this all together:
Transpose[{#[[1]], #[[2]], #[[2]] - #[[1]]} & /@ Partition[FoldList[Plus, 0,
Range[10]],2,1]][[3]]
Hope that helps.
Harvey
-----Original Message-----
Hello. I'm a user of Mathematica 3.0. A simple example of
what I'd like to do is as follows:
Suppose you have the finite series
S[i_]=Sum[x[k],{k,1,i}]
which is equal to x[1]+x[2]+...+x[i], where the total # of
terms i is left variable.
I'd like mathematica to calculate the difference
S[N]-S[N-1] = x[N]-x[0] .
I've tried commands like
Expand[S[N]-S[N-1]] and Simplify[S[N]-S[N-1]] ,
but mathematica doesn't simplify it as you would expect.
It basically does nothing. I suspect that it needs some
sort of clarification as to the nature of N (i.e. it's a
positive integer), but I'm not sure. Is there an easy
way for me to do what I'd like?
Thanks,
AC