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Earlier in the Infinite Series Module, we introduced the concept of a geometric series,
We assumed that r was a constant. But what if r were not a constant, and instead was a variable?
Let's replace our r with x in the above summation. We now obtain
From this simple substitution, we have created a function, and can ask two important questions related to this result.
Key Questions for This Lesson
From our simple construction, we can ask:
- for what values of x does our summation yield a finite result?
- is there a more general representation of our summation?
The first question will take us to the idea of a radius of convergence, and the second question to the concept of a power series.
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