College Algebra, Section 8.4, #16
Series
i
1
Skills Check Evaluate the sum
.
2
i=1
5
P
1
The index, i, on this summation tells us that we will be finding the sum of the first five terms of the sequence.
Term i = 1 is our starting point and the 5th term is where we will stop the summation.
5 i
X
1
i=1
2
=
1 2 3 4 5
1
1
1
1
1
+
+
+
+
2
2
2
2
2
=
1
1
1
1
1
+
+
+
+
2
4
8
16
32
=
16
8
4
2
16
+
+
+
+
32 32 32 32 32
=
31
32
i
31
1
=
32
i=1 2
5
P
1 Harshbarger/Yocco,
College Algebra In Context, 5e, p. 625 #16.