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[-] crwth@piefed.zip 10 points 1 day ago

I had a student tasked with summing a finite geometric sequence with |r|>1, let's say 1+2+4+8+16. He had apparently forgotten the formula for that, but knew the formula for the infinite series a/(1-r). Good enough he thinks, and sums 1+2+4+... = -1, then subtracts off the excess terms 32+64+128+... = -32, and gets the correct answer of 31.

this post was submitted on 01 Jun 2026
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