How to use Excel for a mathematical series?
I need to perform a task in excel in a single cell that essentially is the series ∑ 1 / (x * n) where n=1 until n= x. This isn't that complicated if you only need to do it once with a known x, but I need to perform this hundreds of times, where x is a different value each time, which is why I'd like to do it in each time in a single cell. For example, if x=3, then the sum will look like 1/(3*1) + 1/(3*2) + 1/(3*3)
It looks like the only excel formulas that can help me are SERIESSUM and SEQUENCE. The issues it that SERIESSUM is only for power series and SEQUENCE, as you might be able to tell, is only a sequence, rather than a series.
You can create your own series by putting SEQUENCE in a SUM formula like this: =SUM(SEQUENCE(. . .)), which works pretty well, but the SEQUENCE formula is sort of limited, i.e., I can't find a way to include some version of 1/n into the sequence.
The SERIESSUM formula requires a sequence to be entered as the final parameter, for which the SEQUENCE formula can be used, which is helpful.
I've included the documentation for both SERIESSUM and SEQUENCE formulas, so you can see what the inputs/parameters are.
I'm running into an issue with the SERIESSUM formula which is that I can make the second parameter n=-1, which turns each component of the series into a fraction, but I'm not able to increment the parameter x (to clarify, this n and x refer to the parameters in the documentation of the SERIESSUM formula, not the n and x in my formula above).
It's been awhile since I've taken calculus, so I'm wondering if there is some mathematical finagling that can help accomplish ∑ 1 / (x * n) using the tools I have in excel.
[link] [comments]
Want to read more?
Check out the full article on the original site