In mathematics, a telescoping series is a series whose general term ${\displaystyle t_{n}}$ is of the form ${\displaystyle t_{n}=a_{n+1}-a_{n}}$, i.e. the difference of two consecutive terms of a sequence ${\displaystyle (a_{n})}$.^[1]

As a consequence the partial sums only consists of two terms of ${\displaystyle (a_{n})}$ after cancellation.^[2][3] The cancellation technique, with part of each term cancelling with part of the next term, is known as the method of differences.

For example, the series

${\displaystyle \sum _{n=1}^{\infty }{\frac {1}{n(n+1)}}}$

(the series of reciprocals of pronic numbers) simplifies as

${\displaystyle {\begin{aligned}\sum _{n=1}^{\infty }{\frac {1}{n(n+1)}}&{}=\sum _{n=1}^{\infty }\left({\frac {1}{n}}-{\frac {1}{n+1}}\right)\\{}&{}=\lim _{N\to \infty }\sum _{n=1}^{N}\left({\frac {1}{n}}-{\frac {1}{n+1}}\right)\\{}&{}=\lim _{N\to \infty }\left\lbrack {\left(1-{\frac {1}{2}}\right)+\left({\frac {1}{2}}-{\frac {1}{3}}\right)+\cdots +\left({\frac {1}{N}}-{\frac {1}{N+1}}\right)}\right\rbrack \\{}&{}=\lim _{N\to \infty }\left\lbrack {1+\left(-{\frac {1}{2}}+{\frac {1}{2}}\right)+\left(-{\frac {1}{3}}+{\frac {1}{3}}\right)+\cdots +\left(-{\frac {1}{N}}+{\frac {1}{N}}\right)-{\frac {1}{N+1}}}\right\rbrack \\{}&{}=\lim _{N\to \infty }\left\lbrack {1-{\frac {1}{N+1}}}\right\rbrack =1.\end{aligned}}}$

An early statement of the formula for the sum or partial sums of a telescoping series can be found in a 1644 work by Evangelista Torricelli, De dimensione parabolae.^[4]

In general

A telescoping series of powers. Note in the summation sign, ${\textstyle \sum }$, the index n goes from 1 to m. There is no relationship between n and m beyond the fact that both are natural numbers.

Telescoping sums are finite sums in which pairs of consecutive terms cancel each other, leaving only the initial and final terms.^[5]

Let ${\displaystyle a_{n}}$ be a sequence of numbers. Then,

${\displaystyle \sum _{n=1}^{N}\left(a_{n}-a_{n-1}\right)=a_{N}-a_{0}}$

If ${\displaystyle a_{n}\rightarrow 0}$

${\displaystyle \sum _{n=1}^{\infty }\left(a_{n}-a_{n-1}\right)=-a_{0}}$

Telescoping products are finite products in which consecutive terms cancel denominator with numerator, leaving only the initial and final terms.

Let ${\displaystyle a_{n}}$ be a sequence of numbers. Then,

${\displaystyle \prod _{n=1}^{N}{\frac {a_{n-1}}{a_{n}}}={\frac {a_{0}}{a_{N}}}}$

If ${\displaystyle a_{n}\rightarrow 1}$

${\displaystyle \prod _{n=1}^{\infty }{\frac {a_{n-1}}{a_{n}}}=a_{0}}$

More examples

• Many trigonometric functions also admit representation as a difference, which allows telescopic canceling between the consecutive terms.
  $${\displaystyle {\begin{aligned}\sum _{n=1}^{N}\sin \left(n\right)&{}=\sum _{n=1}^{N}{\frac {1}{2}}\csc \left({\frac {1}{2}}\right)\left(2\sin \left({\frac {1}{2}}\right)\sin \left(n\right)\right)\\&{}={\frac {1}{2}}\csc \left({\frac {1}{2}}\right)\sum _{n=1}^{N}\left(\cos \left({\frac {2n-1}{2}}\right)-\cos \left({\frac {2n+1}{2}}\right)\right)\\&{}={\frac {1}{2}}\csc \left({\frac {1}{2}}\right)\left(\cos \left({\frac {1}{2}}\right)-\cos \left({\frac {2N+1}{2}}\right)\right).\end{aligned}}}$$

  
• Some sums of the form
  $${\displaystyle \sum _{n=1}^{N}{f(n) \over g(n)}}$$

  
  where f and g are polynomial functions whose quotient may be broken up into partial fractions, will fail to admit summation by this method. In particular, one has
  $${\displaystyle {\begin{aligned}\sum _{n=0}^{\infty }{\frac {2n+3}{(n+1)(n+2)}}={}&\sum _{n=0}^{\infty }\left({\frac {1}{n+1}}+{\frac {1}{n+2}}\right)\\={}&\left({\frac {1}{1}}+{\frac {1}{2}}\right)+\left({\frac {1}{2}}+{\frac {1}{3}}\right)+\left({\frac {1}{3}}+{\frac {1}{4}}\right)+\cdots \\&{}\cdots +\left({\frac {1}{n-1}}+{\frac {1}{n}}\right)+\left({\frac {1}{n}}+{\frac {1}{n+1}}\right)+\left({\frac {1}{n+1}}+{\frac {1}{n+2}}\right)+\cdots \\={}&\infty .\end{aligned}}}$$

  
  The problem is that the terms do not cancel.
• Let k be a positive integer. Then
  $${\displaystyle \sum _{n=1}^{\infty }{\frac {1}{n(n+k)}}={\frac {H_{k}}{k}}}$$

  
  where H_k is the kth harmonic number. All of the terms after 1/(k − 1) cancel.
• Let k,m with k ${\displaystyle \neq }$ m be positive integers. Then
  $${\displaystyle \sum _{n=1}^{\infty }{\frac {1}{(n+k)(n+k+1)\dots (n+m-1)(n+m)}}={\frac {1}{m-k}}\cdot {\frac {k!}{m!}}}$$

  

An application in probability theory

In probability theory, a Poisson process is a stochastic process of which the simplest case involves "occurrences" at random times, the waiting time until the next occurrence having a memoryless exponential distribution, and the number of "occurrences" in any time interval having a Poisson distribution whose expected value is proportional to the length of the time interval. Let X_t be the number of "occurrences" before time t, and let T_x be the waiting time until the xth "occurrence". We seek the probability density function of the random variable T_x. We use the probability mass function for the Poisson distribution, which tells us that

${\displaystyle \Pr(X_{t}=x)={\frac {(\lambda t)^{x}e^{-\lambda t}}{x!}},}$

where λ is the average number of occurrences in any time interval of length 1. Observe that the event {X_t ≥ x} is the same as the event {T_x ≤ t}, and thus they have the same probability. Intuitively, if something occurs at least ${\displaystyle x}$ times before time ${\displaystyle t}$, we have to wait at most ${\displaystyle t}$ for the ${\displaystyle xth}$ occurrence. The density function we seek is therefore

${\displaystyle {\begin{aligned}f(t)&{}={\frac {d}{dt}}\Pr(T_{x}\leq t)={\frac {d}{dt}}\Pr(X_{t}\geq x)={\frac {d}{dt}}(1-\Pr(X_{t}\leq x-1))\\\\&{}={\frac {d}{dt}}\left(1-\sum _{u=0}^{x-1}\Pr(X_{t}=u)\right)={\frac {d}{dt}}\left(1-\sum _{u=0}^{x-1}{\frac {(\lambda t)^{u}e^{-\lambda t}}{u!}}\right)\\\\&{}=\lambda e^{-\lambda t}-e^{-\lambda t}\sum _{u=1}^{x-1}\left({\frac {\lambda ^{u}t^{u-1}}{(u-1)!}}-{\frac {\lambda ^{u+1}t^{u}}{u!}}\right)\end{aligned}}}$

The sum telescopes, leaving

${\displaystyle f(t)={\frac {\lambda ^{x}t^{x-1}e^{-\lambda t}}{(x-1)!}}.}$

Similar concepts

Other applications

For other applications, see:

• Grandi's series;
• Proof that the sum of the reciprocals of the primes diverges, where one of the proofs uses a telescoping sum;
• Fundamental theorem of calculus, a continuous analog of telescoping series;
• Order statistic, where a telescoping sum occurs in the derivation of a probability density function;
• Lefschetz fixed-point theorem, where a telescoping sum arises in algebraic topology;
• Homology theory, again in algebraic topology;
• Eilenberg–Mazur swindle, where a telescoping sum of knots occurs;
• Faddeev–LeVerrier algorithm.

References