Imaginary unit/Introductory

Revision as of 14:41, 26 October 2007 by Temperal (talk | contribs) (solution)

Problem

Find the sum of $i^1+i^2+\ldots+i^{2006}$

Solution

Since $i$ repeats in a n exponential series at every fifth turn, the sequence i, -1, -i, 1 repeats. Note that this sums to 0. That means that all sequences $i^1+i^2+\ldots+i^{4k}$ have a sum of zero (k is a natural number). Since $2006=4\cdot501+2$, the original series sums to the first two terms of the powers of i, which equals $-1+i$.