I seem to have a lot of problems in the format of:
Given the sequence $a_n=\frac{n^\alpha+1}{2n^8+5}$, for $\alpha > 0$, find the values of $\alpha$ such that the sequence converges.
However, I can never seem to get Mathematica to solve for a variable in a limit.
I have tried
Solve[Limit[(1 + n^a)/(5 + 2 n^8), n -> Infinity, Assumptions :> a > 0] == 0, a]
Reduce[Limit[(1 + n^a)/(5 + 2 n^8), n -> Infinity, Assumptions :> a > 0] == 0, a]
Solve
gave me no solutions, with a warning about inverse function. Reduce
gave me the solution is C[1] ∈ Integers && α == 0
, which also violates the initial assumption ($\alpha > 0$). However, I tried particular cases manually, such as
Limit[(1 + n^3)/(5 + 2 n^8), n -> Infinity, Assumptions :> a > 0] == 0
which gave True
. Am I going about this in the wrong way?
Answer
For some reasons Limit
does not work well with inequalities in assumptions. To see the problem one can try this :
Manipulate[ Limit[(1 + n^a)/(5 + 2 n^8), n -> Infinity, Assumptions -> a == h],
{h, 0, 20}]
it does work well unlike :
Manipulate[ Limit[(1 + n^a)/(5 + 2 n^8), n -> Infinity, Assumptions -> a > h],
{h, 0, 20}]
Since the first way works well, one can find easily (also in more sophisticated examples) appropriate values, e.g.
Limit[(1 + n^a)/(5 + 2 n^8), n -> Infinity, Assumptions -> #] & /@ { a < 8, a == 8, a > 8}
{0, 1/2, Infinity}
The problem with using Limit
with Reduce
is rather of more general nature, e.g. :
Reduce[ Limit[(1 + n^a)/(5 + 2 n^8), n -> Infinity, Assumptions -> a == h] == 0, h, Reals]
False
This is certainly a bug.
On the other hand SumConvergence
seems to behave better :
Assuming[a ∈ Reals, SumConvergence[(1 + n^a)/(5 + 2 n^8), n]]
a < 7
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