Does the following sequence {an} converge or diverge?
an=n!2n
Answer
Consider writing "out" the sequence:
n!2n=n2n−12n−22⋯42322212
Note that every time we take another step in the sequence, we multiply by n2 so we're making the sequence larger and larger each time. In particular, we can see that every term in the factorization in (1) is larger or equal than 1, except 1/2, so that
n!2n=n2n−12n−22⋯42322212⩾
What does this tell you about the limit of the sequence?
Another approach would be D'Alambert's criterion (ratio test), which gives:
{a_n} = \frac{{n!}}{{{2^n}}}
So
\mathop {\lim }\limits_{n \to \infty } \frac{{{a_{n + 1}}}}{{{a_n}}} = \mathop {\lim }\limits_{n \to \infty } \frac{{\left( {n + 1} \right)!}}{{{2^{n + 1}}}}\frac{{{2^n}}}{{n!}} = \mathop {\lim }\limits_{n \to \infty } \frac{{{a_{n + 1}}}}{{{a_n}}} = \mathop {\lim }\limits_{n \to \infty } \frac{{n + 1}}{2}\frac{{n!}}{{n!}} = \mathop {\lim }\limits_{n \to \infty } \frac{{n + 1}}{2}
What can you say about that limit? Then, what does this tell you about
\mathop {\lim }\limits_{n \to \infty } {a_n} \; \;?
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