<s>[INST] How to evaluate $ \frac{1}{3} + \frac{2}{3^{2} } + \frac{1}{3^{3}} + \frac{2}{3^{4}} + \frac{1}{3^{5}} + ...$? I was given the series:
$$ \frac{1}{3} + \frac{2}{3^{2} } + \frac{1}{3^{3}} + \frac{2}{3^{4}} + \frac{1}{3^{5}} + ...$$
Making some observations I realized that the $ a_{n} $ term would be the following:
$$ a_{n} = \frac{1}{ 3^{n} } \left(\frac{3}{2}+ \frac{(-1)^{n}}{2} \right)$$
What I wanted to do is to find the result of the series, so the answer would be:
$$\sum_{n=1}^{ \infty } \frac{1}{ 3^{n} } \left(\frac{3}{2}+ \frac{(-1)^{n}}{2} \right) = \frac{3}{2} \sum_{n=1}^{ \infty } \left[ \frac{1}{3^{n} } \right]+ \sum_{n=1}^{ \infty } \left[\frac{1}{3^{n} } \frac{(-1)^{n}}{2}\right]$$
I can tell that the first term is convergent because it is a geometric series, in fact, the result is $\frac{3}{4}$. However, I have no clue in how to solve the second term series. I should say that the series given in the beginning is convert and its result is 5/8. How to arrive to it is a mystery to me.
 [/INST] Your sum can be put as
$$(1+\frac 23)\Bigl(\frac 13+\frac{1}{3^3}+\frac{1}{3^5}...\Bigr)=$$
$$\frac 53\frac 13\Bigl(1+\frac 19+\frac{1}{9^2}+...\Bigr)=$$
$$\frac 53\frac 13 \frac{1}{1-\frac 19}=\frac 58$$
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