Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge / 2019 / ia / Paper 1 / 4F / i

LetThe set $S$ contains zero. If $r\in S$ and $0\le s<r$, then $s\in S$ by comparison. Moreover, if the original power series diverges at $x_0$, no $r>|x_0|$ can lie in $S$, because absolute convergence at $r$ would imply absolute convergence at $x_0$. Thus $R=\sup S$ is finite and nonnegative.

If $|x|<R$, choose $r\in S$ with $|x|<r$; comparison gives absolute convergence at $x$. If $|x|>R$ and the series converged at $x$, then its terms $a_n{x}^n$ would be bounded. For any $y$ with $R<|y|<|x|$,so the geometric series comparison would put $|y|$ in $S$, contradicting the definition of $R$. This proves the radius of convergence property.

For ${\sum }_{n\ge 1}{x}^n/3^n$, the ratio is $x/3$, so the geometric series criterion gives