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I should calculate the limit of a sequence. A friend told me, that the solution is $1$. But I got $(-1)^n$.

The exercise is: $\lim\limits_{n \to \infty} \frac{1}{n^2} + (-1)^n \cdot \frac{n^2}{n^2+1}$

I did following: $\begin{align*} &=\frac{n^2 ((-1)^n n^2 + 1 + \frac{1}{n^2})}{n^2(n^2+1)}\\ &=\frac{(-1)^n n^2 + 1 + \frac{1}{n^2}}{(n^2+1)}\\ &=\frac{n^2(\frac{(-1)^n n^2}{n^2} + \frac{1}{n^2} + \frac{1}{n^4})}{n^2(1 + \frac{1}{n^2})}\\ &=\frac{(-1)^n + 0 +0}{1}\\ &=\lim\limits_{n \to \infty} (-1)^n \end{align*}$

What did I wrong?

Edit Well, some answers confused me. Here the complete exercise. I should check if the sequence is convergent for ${n \to \infty}$ and determine the limit if it exist. Also for a sequence which is $\infty$ or $-\infty$.

My friend got $1$ as limit. I got $(-1)^n$. I would say, that this sequence has no limit, just limit points $1$ and $-1$.

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    Your friend is wrong.2012-08-27

3 Answers 3

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The problem here is that the sequence does not converge at all!

To prove this, consider the subsequence where $n$ is an even number, and show that the limit is $1$. Then take the subsequence where $n$ is an odd number, and show that the limit is $-1$. Now, if a sequence converges, so do all its subsequences, and the limit is the same! Therefore it can't converge.

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    @hofmeister One more point you seem to be missing: You can't say that the sequence converges to $(-1)^n$ simply because its dependent on $n$! But with respect to your intuition you are completely right. The subsequences converge to either $+1$ or $-1$! But it cant converge to both since the limit of a sequence is unique. The way to prove this was (as in my answer) to find two convergent subsequences with different (but unique) limits. To see what i mean you could look at the sequence $a_n = (-1)^n$ first!2012-08-27
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The limit of a sequence indexed by $n$ cannot contain $n$, as a limit is a number, not a sequence. So your answer $(-1)^n$ as outcome of the limit cannot be correct. However by writing $ \frac1{n^2} + (-1)^n \frac{n^2}{n^2+1}=\frac1{n^2} + (-1)^n -(-1)^n\frac1{n^2+1} $ you can see that you sequence is the sum of three sequences $\frac1{n^2}$, $(-1)^n$, and $-(-1)^n\frac1{n^2+1}$, of which the first and the last are convergent (to $0$), and the middle one is divergent, which implies that the sequence diverges (it has no limit).

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    Fun fact: It can contain $n$ if it's allowed as a letter, like $\sin$ :P Better wording: Cannot _depend on_ $n$.2014-10-08
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Note that, for the limit of a sequence to exist, it has to be unique. That means the sequence has to converge to a single value. In your case the sequence has subsequences which converge to two different values, namely $ L = \left\{-1,1\right\}\,.$ So the limit does not exist. Here comes the notion of $\limsup$ and $\liminf$ which we use to define the existence of the limit. We say the sequence $a_{n}$ converges to $a$ $n\rightarrow \infty$, if

$ \liminf_{n\rightarrow \infty} a_n =\limsup_{n \rightarrow \infty} a_n = \lim_{n \rightarrow\infty} a_n \,.$

In your case $\liminf_{n\rightarrow \infty} a_n =-1$ and $ \limsup_{n \rightarrow \infty} a_n = 1 $, so they are not equal and hence the limit of the sequence does not exist.

You can compare this to the case of taking limits of functions when we require for the limit to exist at a point $x_0$ that $ \lim_{x\rightarrow x_0^{-}} f(x) = \lim_{x\rightarrow x_0^{+}} f(x) = \lim_{x\rightarrow x_0} f(x) \,.$

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    @MhenniBenghorbal The problem is that the analogy doesn't work. Also $\limsup$ and $\liminf$ are introduced later than the concept of a regular limit (in fact they are defined in a way using this: $\liminf_{n\to\infty} a_n = \lim\limits_{n\to\infty} \inf\limits_{m\ge n} a_m$). Also the sequence also has divergent subsequences; your answer suggests that all its subsequences converge to some value. ($\pm 0$, but I can undestand the downvotes)2014-10-08