Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2013 ia Paper 1 9D a Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-07
For a nonzero , the absolute successive-term ratio in the exponential series is , so the first series converges for every . For the factorial series the ratio is , so its terms fail to tend to zero for every .
The third series is sparse: its exponent is , as in the PDF. If , thenFor , the terms grow without bound; at their moduli are , so they again fail the term test. Equivalently, the Cauchy-Hadamard theorem for the sparse coefficients uses , not . Thus the three radii of convergence areZeros at non-square coefficient indices do not change the relevant limsup in the last root test. This illustrates the radius of convergence of a sparse power series.