Introduction

In this Section we develop the ground work for later Sections on infinite series and on power series. We begin with simple sequences of numbers and with finite series of numbers. We introduce the summation notation for the description of series. Finally, we consider arithmetic and geometric series and obtain expressions for the sum of $n$ terms of both types of series.

Prerequisites

• understand and be able to use the basic rules of algebra
• be able to find limits of algebraic expressions

Learning Outcomes

• check if a sequence of numbers is
  
  convergent
• use the summation notation to specify
  
  series
• recognise arithmetic and geometric series and find their sums