TheNona wrote:
Can you please elaborate more , Zarrou ? I still do not understand , and the line in red tricks me a lot .
Thanks in advance
The pattern:
\(\frac{1}{2},-\frac{1}{4},\frac{1}{8},-\frac{1}{16},...\)
We have to sum those elements so:
\(\frac{1}{2}-\frac{1}{4}+\frac{1}{8}-\frac{1}{16}+...\)
The first term is \(\frac{1}{2}\), to this we subtract 1/4, to the result we add 1/8, and so on
As you see the operations involve smaller and smaller term each time. The first thing to notice here is that the sum will be <1/2, we can easily see this:
\(\frac{1}{2}-\frac{1}{4}=\frac{1}{4}\) and the operations will not produce a result >1/2. Hope it's clear here: the numbers decrease too rapidly to produce a result as big as the first term!
Now we are left with D and E: the only 2 option which result is <1/2. And the question is: will the sum be less than 1/4?
We have to find an easy way to see this, consider this fact:
\(\frac{1}{2},-\frac{1}{4},\frac{1}{8},-\frac{1}{16},...\)
take the sum of couple of terms: 1st with 2nd, 3rd with 4th, and so on...
The result will be positive for each couple, lets take a look:\(\frac{1}{2}-\frac{1}{4}=\frac{1}{4}\) for the first one, \(+\frac{1}{8}-\frac{1}{16}=\frac{1}{16}(>0)\) and so on.
The thing to take away here is: 1/4+(num>0)+(num>0)+... will NOT be less than 1/4, how could it be if all numbers are positive?
So the sum will be GREATER than 1/4 and LESSER than 1/4.
Hope everything is clear now, I have been as exhaustive as possible, let me know