The Beauty of the General Term
Imagine you are standing before a complex, intimidating series. It looks like a mountain of fractions, each one more daunting than the last. But in the world of JEE Advanced, every mountain has a path.
Our goal today is to find the sum of the first ten terms of the series:
S10=123⋅13+12+225⋅(13+23)+12+22+327⋅(13+23+33)+…
The secret to conquering this is to stop looking at the whole and start looking at the DNA of a single term, Tn. When we isolate the n-th term, the chaos begins to organize itself into a beautiful, predictable pattern.
Decoding the Pattern
Let us break down Tn. The numerator has two distinct parts: the multipliers (3,5,7,…) and the sum of cubes (∑k=1nk3).
The multipliers form an arithmetic progression where the n-th term is (2n+1). The denominator is the sum of squares, ∑k=1nk2.
Thus, our general term is:
Tn=∑k=1nk2(2n+1)∑k=1nk3
This is the moment where the problem shifts from a terrifying series to a manageable algebraic expression. We are not just calculating; we are translating the language of the series into the language of algebra.
The Power of Standard Tools
Now, we bring in our heavy artillery: the standard summation formulas. You must have these memorized as tools in your belt.
The sum of cubes is:
k=1∑nk3=4n2(n+1)2
The sum of squares is:
k=1∑nk2=6n(n+1)(2n+1)
When we substitute these into our expression for
Tn, it might look messy at first:
Tn=6n(n+1)(2n+1)(2n+1)[4n2(n+1)2]
Do not panic! This is where the magic happens. The (2n+1) in the numerator and denominator will cancel out, as will one factor of n and one factor of (n+1).
The Elegance of Cancellation
Watch closely as the complexity evaporates. After the cancellations, we are left with:
Tn=4n(n+1)⋅6=23(n2+n)
This is the reward for your patience. A complex fraction has collapsed into a simple quadratic.
Now, finding the sum of the first ten terms is no longer a Herculean task; it is a simple summation:
S10=n=1∑1023(n2+n)
We can pull the constant
23 outside, leaving us with:
S10=23(n=1∑10n2+n=1∑10n)
The Final Victory
We are in the home stretch. We know that:
n=1∑10n2=610⋅11⋅21=385
Adding these together, we get
385+55=440. Finally, we multiply by our constant:
S10=23(440)=3⋅220=660
There it is. The answer is 660. You didn't just solve a problem; you navigated a logical path, used your tools with precision, and found the elegant truth hidden beneath the surface.