A Useful Mathematical Trick, Telescoping Series, and the Infinite

Sum of the Reciprocals of the Triangular Numbers

David Meyer

dmm613@[Link]

Last Update: August 17, 2024

Initial Version: October 8, 2022

  
1 1 1 1
1 A Useful Mathematical Trick: n n+1 = n − n+1

This useful bit of mathematical magic works when the denominators of the two fractions are of the form
n and n + 1, their numerators are both 1, and n > 0. These are the so-called pronic numbers [7]. As an
example, for n = 3 we get

  
1 1 1 1 1 4−3 1
= and − = =
3 4 12 3 4 12 12

So why does this work? Consider

  
1 1 1
= # multiply through
n n+1 n · (n + 1)
(n − n) + 1
= # (n − n) = 0 and 0 + 1 = 1
n · (n + 1)
(n + 1) − n
= # rearrange (+ is commutative and associative)
n · (n + 1)
(n + 1) n
= − # split into a difference
n · (n + 1) n · (n + 1)
1 n
= − # cancel (n + 1) in the first term
n n · (n + 1)
1 1
= − # cancel n in the second term
n n+1

So now we can see why

  
1 1 1 1
= − (1)
n n+1 n n+1

An example of the use of this trick in evaluating infinite series is Burkard Polster’s (aka Mathologer) use of
Equation (1) when describing how Euler’s solution to the Basel problem works [3, 4].

1
2 Telescoping Series
What is a telescoping series? Briefly, a telescoping series is a sum that is characterized by partial sums
(called telescoping sums) that contain pairs of consecutive terms which cancel each other, leaving only the
first and final terms [8]. This cancellation of adjacent terms is whimsically referred to as ”collapsing the
telescope”.

For example, consider the infinite series whose terms are described by Equation (1). This is perhaps the
canonical example of a telescoping series, which can be seen as follows:

∞    ∞  
X 1 1 X 1 1
= − # Equation (1)
n n+1 n n+1
n=1 n=1
N  
X 1 1
= lim − # definition of an infinite series [10]
N →∞ n n+1
n=1
"     #
1 1 1 1 1
= lim 1− + − + ··· + − # expand the sum
N →∞ 2 2 3 N N +1
"       #
1 1 1 1 1 1 1
= lim 1+ − + + − + + ··· + − + − # group terms
N →∞ 2 2 3 3 N N N +1
 
1
= lim 1 − # collapse the telescope
N →∞ N +1
 
1
= lim [1] − lim # limit is a linear operator [2]
N →∞ N →∞ N +1
 
1
= 1−0 # lim [c] = c and lim =0
n→∞ n→∞ n+1
∞   
X 1 1
= 1 # =1
n n+1
n=1

A bit more formally, a telescoping series is the sum of terms of the form (aj − aj+1 ). As a result of the
structure of its terms a telescoping series has the following property:

n
X
(aj − aj+1 ) = (a1 − a2 ) + (a2 − a3 ) + (a3 − a4 ) + · · · + (an − an+1 ) # expand terms
j=1
= a1 + (a2 − a2 ) + (a3 − a3 ) + · · · + (an − an ) − an+1 # group like terms

= a1 − an+1 # simplify

3 Triangular Numbers
The example I want to explore here is the infinite sum of the reciprocals of the triangular numbers [9]. So
first, what is a triangular number? The first six triangular numbers are depicted as triangles in Figure 1.
We can see from the figure that a triangular number Tn is the sum of the integers from 1 to n.

2
 Figure 1: The First Six Triangular Numbers [9]

Ok, but what is the general form of Tn ? Since Tn is the sum of the first n integers we know that1

n  
X n(n + 1) n+1
Tn = k = 1 + 2 + 3 + ··· + n = = (2)
2 2
k=1

As an aside, there is an interesting relationship between the triangular numbers and Pascal’s Triangle [6]: if
you start at the second row (counting from zero) and second column (again counting from zero) of Pascal’s
Triangle the corresponding diagonal contains the triangular numbers. This is shown in Figure 2. Figure 3
shows Pascal’s Triangle with binomial coefficients (the triangular numbers are shown in blue).

Figure 2: Number patterns in Pascal’s Triangle [5]

1 The great mathematician Carl Friedrich Gauss is said to have discovered the consecutive integer formula while still at

primary school [1].

3
 0


0

1 1



0 1

2 2 2




0 1 2

3 3 3 3





0 1 2 3

4 4 4 4 4






0 1 2 3 4

5 5 5 5 5 5







0 1 2 3 4 5

6 6 6 6 6 6 6








0 1 2 3 4 5 6

7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7









0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8










0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

Figure 3: Pascal’s Triangle with Binomial Coefficients

4 The Sum of the Reciprocals of the Triangular Numbers

All of this is good, but back to the question: what is the sum of the reciprocals of the triangular numbers?

N
X 1
Well, first, the sum looks like
T
n=1 n

N N
X 1 X 1
= n(n+1)
# definition of Tn (Equation (2))
T
n=1 n n=1 2
N
X 2
= # simplify
n=1
n(n + 1)
N   
X 1 1
= 2 # pull 2 out of the sum and group terms
n=1
n n+1
N  
X 1 1
= 2 − # Equation (1)
n=1
n n+1

N    
X 1 1 1
We saw in Section 2 that lim − = lim 1 − = 1 and we know from the above
N →∞
n=1
n n+1 N →∞ N +1
that the infinite sum of the reciprocals of the triangular numbers is twice this limit. So we know that

∞
"  #
X 1 1
= 2 lim 1 − =2·1=2
T
n=1 n
N →∞ N +1

4
5 Conclusions
Equation (1) turns out to be very useful, especially when evaluating infinite telescoping series. We also saw
in Section 4 that interestingly, the infinite sum of the reciprocals of the triangular numbers equals two, that
is,
∞
X 1
=2
T
n=1 n

As we saw in Section 2, the evaluation of this sum makes heavy use of a telescoping series described by
Equation (1).

Acknowledgements
LATEX Source
[Link]

References
[1] Donna Roberts. Gauss on Arithmetic Sequences. [Link]
Sequences/[Link]. [Online; accessed 13-Apr-2024].
[2] Alex Svirin. Properties of Limits. [Link] [Online; accessed
14-November-2021].

[3] Burkard Polster (aka Mathologer). Euler’s real identity NOT e to the i pi = -1. [Link]
com/watch?v=yPl64xi_ZZA, August 2017. [Online; accessed 17-August-2021].
[4] David Meyer. A Few Notes on the Basel Problem. [Link]
2021. [See [Link]

[5] Mathlete’s Corner. Pascal’s Triangle. [Link]

topics-1/pascal-s-triangle. [Online; accessed 20-August-2021].
[6] Wikipedia Contributors. Pascal’s Triangle — Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedi. [Link]
[Link]/w/[Link]?title=Pascal%27s_triangle&oldid=1036356492, 2021. [Online; ac-
cessed 18-August-2021].

[7] Wikipedia Contributors. Pronic Number — Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. [Link]
[Link]/w/[Link]?title=Pronic_number&oldid=1011560999, 2021. [Online; accessed 20-
August-2021].
[8] Wikipedia Contributors. Telescoping Series — Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. [Link]
[Link]/w/[Link]?title=Telescoping_series&oldid=1028468162, 2021. [Online; ac-
cessed 17-August-2021].
[9] Wikipedia Contributors. Triangular Number — Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. https://
[Link]/w/[Link]?title=Triangular_number&oldid=1034664425, 2021. [Online; ac-
cessed 17-August-2021].

[10] Wikipedia Contributors. Series (mathematics) — Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. [Link]
[Link]/w/[Link]?title=Series_(mathematics)&oldid=1101685143, 2022. [Online; ac-
cessed 18-August-2022].