Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge / 2005 / ia / Paper 1 / 9F / iii / Solution

Let $a_n$ denote the summand. Its denominator is positive for every $n\ge 1$: odd $n$ gives $n^4+n^2$, while even $n\ge 2$ gives $n^4-n^2$. Dividing numerator and denominator by their highest powers givesThe terms are positive for sufficiently large $n$, so the limit comparison test with the divergent harmonic series gives divergence to $+\infty$. More explicitly, for $n\ge 16$ the numerator is at least $n^3/2$ and the denominator is at most $2n^4$, giving $a_n\ge 1/(4n)$. Any finitely many early negative terms change partial sums by only a finite constant and cannot prevent divergence of this positive tail.