Rudin page 174 - Power Series

71 Views Asked by At

Rudin is proving Abel's Theorem on page 174 of my print edition

He writes,

Let $s_n = c_0 + c_1 + ... + c_n$, $s_{-1} = 0$. Then

$\sum_{n=0}^m c_n x^n = \sum_{n=0}^m (s_n - s_{n-1})x^n = (1-x) \sum_{n=0}^{m-1} s_n x^n + s_m x^m$

How did he arrive at $\sum_{n=0}^m (s_n - s_{n-1})x^n = (1-x) \sum_{n=0}^{m-1} s_n x^n + s_m x^m$ ?

And also, is that $(1-x) \sum_{n=0}^{m-1} (s_n x^n + s_m x^m)$ or $(1-x) \sum_{n=0}^{m-1} (s_n x^n) + s_m x^m$ ?

1

There are 1 best solutions below

0
On BEST ANSWER

Quite simply, $$\begin{align*} \sum_{n=0}^m (s_n - s_{n-1})x^n &= \sum_{n=0}^m s_n x^n - \sum_{n=0}^m s_{n-1} x^n \\ &= s_m x^m + \sum_{n=0}^{m-1} s_n x^n - \sum_{n=-1}^{m-1} s_n x^{n+1} \\ &= s_m x^m + \sum_{n=0}^{m-1} s_n (x^n - x^{n+1}) \\ &= s_m x^m + (1-x) \sum_{n=0}^{m-1} s_n x^n. \end{align*}$$

The first step is distributing $x^n$ over $(s_n - s_{n-1})$ and splitting the result into two sums. The second step peels off the last term of the first sum, and rewrites the second sum by shifting the index of summation by $1$. The third step observes $s_{-1} = 0$ and combines the two sums from the second step, which now share the same lower and upper bound of summation. The last step factors out $(1-x)$.