Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2007 ia Paper 4 7E Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-14
A real sequence converges to if, for every , there is an integer such that for every . A convergent series is one whose partial sums converge to a finite real limit.
If , then . This necessary condition is the term test for divergence. Its converse fails: the harmonic series has terms but diverges. For a direct proof, each block from to contains terms each at least , so contributes at least . Infinitely many such blocks make the partial sums unbounded.
For the positive sequences in the final request, the inequality makes decreasing and bounded below by zero. The bounded monotone sequence theorem gives . Summing the decrements givesSuppose . Since , this impliesBut clipping preserves divergence of a positive series: if infinitely many , the clipped series has infinitely many terms equal to ; otherwise its tail equals the divergent tail of . Either case contradicts the displayed bound. Hence the only possible limit isThis proves the minimum-decrement convergence criterion without assuming that the divergent positive sequence itself tends to zero.