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I would like to create a function that returns true precisely if a series diverges to infinity.

Unfortunately it seems that Maxima throws an error if a series diverges. I loaded the package simplify_sum and I hoped that simplify_sum(sum(1/n,n,1,inf)) would return inf, but it returns

sum: sum is divergent.
#0: simplify_sum(expr='sum(1/n,n,1,inf))
-- an error. To debug this try: debugmode(true);

How can I check whether a series diverges to infinity?

Jolien
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1 Answers1

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I realized this cannot be done as this is an undecidable problem.

Jolien
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  • At some point maxima is telling you it's diverging. Is there a way to catch the error ? –  Jul 08 '20 at 07:37