Analyzing the Setup
Welcome, warriors of JEE! Today, we are going to dismantle a series that, at first glance, looks like a chaotic mess of numbers and fractions. But remember, in the world of competitive mathematics, chaos is just order waiting to be discovered.
Our series is 1+6+79(12+22+32)+912(12+22+32+42)+…. The goal is to find the sum of the first 15 terms, S15.
The first step is to stop being intimidated. Look at the 3rd and 4th terms; they have a clear, repeating structure: a multiplier, a sum of squares, and a denominator.
We can rewrite 1 as 33(12) and 6 as 56(12+22). Now, the entire series is a family.
The Anatomy of the General Term
Now that we have unmasked the pattern, let us find its DNA. We need the general term Tn.
Look at the multipliers in the numerator: 3,6,9,12,…. This is an Arithmetic Progression (A.P.) with first term a=3 and common difference d=3. The n-th term is simply 3n.
Now, look at the denominators: 3,5,7,9,…. This is another A.P. with a=3 and d=2. The n-th term is 2n+1.
Finally, the core of each term is the sum of squares:
∑k=1nk2. We know the standard identity:
k=1∑nk2=6n(n+1)(2n+1)
Putting it all together, our general term is:
Tn=2n+13n⋅∑k=1nk2
The Elegance of Cancellation
This is the moment of truth. Let us substitute the sum of squares formula into our expression for
Tn:
Tn=2n+13n⋅6n(n+1)(2n+1)
Look closely. The
(2n+1) in the numerator and the
(2n+1) in the denominator are perfectly set up to vanish. They cancel out, leaving us with:
Tn=63n2(n+1)
Simplifying
63 to
21, we get:
Tn=2n2(n+1)=2n3+n2
This is the beauty of algebra; what looked like a terrifying fraction has collapsed into a simple polynomial.
The Final Summation
Now, we calculate S15=∑n=115Tn=21[∑n=115n3+∑n=115n2]. We use our standard summation formulas.
For the cubes:
n=1∑15n3=[215(16)]2=1202=14400
For the squares:
n=1∑15n2=615(16)(31)=1240
Adding these together, we get 14400+1240=15640. Finally, we divide by 2 to get the result.
The final sum is 7820.