I've got a homework question that's been puzzling me. It asks that you prove that the function Sum[log(i)*i^3, {i, n}) (ie. the sum of log(i)*i^3 from i=1 to n) is big-theta (log(n)*n^4).
I know that Sum[i^3, {i, n}] is ( (n(n+1))/2 )^2 and that Sum[log(i), {i, n}) is log(n!), but I'm not sure if 1) I can treat these two separately since they're part of the same product inside the sum, and 2) how to start getting this into a form that will help me with the proof.
Any help would be really appreciated. Thanks!
The series looks like this - log 1 + log 2 * 2^3 + log 3 * 3^3....(upto n terms) the sum of which does not converge. So if we integrate it
Integral to (1 to infinity) [ logn * n^3] (integration by parts)
you will get 1/4*logn * n^4 - 1/16* (n^4)
It is clear that the dominating term there is logn*n^4, therefore it belongs to Big Theta(log n * n^4)
The other way you could look at it is -
The series looks like log 1 + log2 * 8 + log 3 * 27......+ log n * n^3. You could think of log n as the term with the highest value, since all logarithmic functions grow at the same rate asymptotically,
You could treat the above series as log n (1 + 2^3 + 3^3...) which is
log n [n^2 ( n + 1)^2]/4
Assuming f(n) = log n * n^4 g(n) = log n [n^2 ( n + 1)^2]/4
You could show that lim (n tends to inf) for f(n)/g(n) will be a constant [applying L'Hopital's rule]
That's another way to prove that the function g(n) belongs to Big Theta (f(n)).
Hope that helps.