INTRODUCTION TO SIGMA NOTATION

1. The notation itself

Sigma notation is a way of writing a sum of many terms, in a concise
form. A sum in sigma notation looks something like this:
5
X
3k
k=1
The Σ (sigma) indicates that a sum is being taken. The variable k
is called the index of the sum. The numbers at the top and bottom
of the Σ are called the upper and lower limits of the summation. In
this case, the upper limit is 5, and the lower limit is 1. The notation
means that we will take every integer value of k between 1 and 5 (so
1, 2, 3, 4, and 5) and plug them each into the summand formula (here
that formula is 3k). Then those are all added together.
5
X
3k = 3 · 1 + 3 · 2 + 3 · 3 + 3 · 4 + 3 · 5 = 45
k=1

Example 1. Write out what is meant by the following:

3
X 1
k=0
k+1

Here, the index k takes the values 0, 1, 2, and 3. We’ll plug those
1
each into k+1 and add them together.
3
X 1 1 1 1 1
= + + +
k=0
k+1 0+1 1+1 2+1 3+1

Example 2. Write out what is meant by the following:

8
X
(−1)i
i=1

Date: Friday March 31, 2016.

1
2 INTRODUCTION TO SIGMA NOTATION

The index variable here is written as i instead of k. That’s ok. The

most common variables to use for indexes include i, j, k, m, and n.
8
X
(−1)i = (−1)1 + (−1)2 + (−1)3 + (−1)4 + (−1)5 + (−1)6 + (−1)7 + (−1)8
i=1
= −1 + 1 + −1 + 1 + −1 + 1 + −1 + 1
=0

Try one on your own.

Example 3. Write out what is meant by the following (no need to
simplify):
4
X √
n+1
n=−1

Let’s try going the other way around.

Example 4. Write the following sum in sigma notation.
2 + 4 + 6 + 8 + . . . + 22 + 24
Notice that we can factor a 2 out of each term to rewrite this sum
as
2 · 1 + 2 · 2 + 2 · 3 + 2 · 4 + . . . + 2 · 11 + 2 · 12
That means that we are adding together 2 times every number between
1 and 12. The sigma notation could be
12
X
2k
k=1
There is no need to use k as our index variable. We could have just as
easily used m or j instead.
12
X 12
X 12
X
2k = 2m = 2j
k=1 m=1 j=1

Notice, that these are NOT the same as

12
X
2m
k=1

Example 5. Write the following sum in sigma notation.

1 1 1 1 1
1 − + − + ... − +
2 4 8 64 128
 INTRODUCTION TO SIGMA NOTATION 3

This one is a little more complicated. We’ll worry about the signs
later, first we’ll deal with the numbers themselves. Do you notice a
pattern in the terms? Sure, we get to the next term by dividing by 2.
That is:
 0
1 1
1= 0 =
2 2
 1
1 1 1
= 1 =
2 2 2
 2
1 1 1
= 2 =
4 2 2
...
 7
1 1 1
= 7 =
128 2 2
If we call our index variable k, then k should go from 0 to 7, and the

k
numbers themselves are just 12 . Now we need to deal with the signs.
We say above that (−1)k will alternate between +1 and −1. That
is, if we multiply our terms from above by (−1)k , they will alternate
between + and −. We are starting with k = 0, so (−1)0 = +1 will give
us the alternation starting at the sign we want.
7  k X 7  k
X
k 1 −1
(−1) =
k=0
2 k=0
2

Try one on your own.

Example 6. Write the following sum in sigma notation.
1 2 3 4 51 52
√ − √ + √ − √ + ... + √ − √
2 3 4 5 52 53

2. Calculating with sigma notation

We want to use sigma notation to simplify our calculations. To do
that, we will need to know some basic sums. First, let’s talk about the
sum of a constant. (Notice here, that our upper limit of summation
is n. n is not the index variable, here, but the highest value that the
index variable will take.)
Xn
C
k=1
4 INTRODUCTION TO SIGMA NOTATION

This is a sum of n terms, each of them having a value C. That is,

we are adding n copies of C. This sum is just nC. The other basic
sums that we need are much more complicated to derive. Rather than
explaining where they come from, we’ll just give you a list of the final
formulas, that you should remember.
Xn
Formula 1. C = nC.
k=1
n
X n(n + 1)
Formula 2. k= .
k=1
2
n
X n(n + 1)(2n + 1)
Formula 3. k2 = .
k=1
6
n  2
X
3 n(n + 1)
Formula 4. k = .
k=1
2
Now that we have this list, let’s use them to compute.
5
X
Example 7. Find the value of the sum 9.
k=1

This is just the sum of a constant, with C = 9 and n = 5. The value

is nC = 5 · 9 = 45.
100
X
Example 8. Find the value of the sum k.
k=1

This is the sum 1 + 2 + 3 + . . . + 100. According to Formula 2 above

(with n = 100), this is 100(101)
2
= 5050.

Because sigma notation is just a new way of writing addition, the

usual properties of addition still apply, but a couple of the important
ones look a little different.
Xn n
X Xn
Property 1 (Commutativity). (ak + bk ) = ak + bk .
k=1 k=1 k=1
n
X n
X
Property 2 (Distribution). c · ak = c ak .
k=1 k=1
10
X
2k 2 + 5 .


Example 9. Find the value of the sum
k=1
 INTRODUCTION TO SIGMA NOTATION 5

First, we’ll use the properties above to split this into two sums, then
factor the 2 out of the first sum.
10
X X10 10
X
2k 2 + 5 = 2k 2 +


5
k=1 k=1 k=1
10
X 10
X
2
= 2 k + 5
k=1 k=1
The two sums we have left, can be found using formulas 1 and 3 above!
10 10
X
2 10(11)(21) X
We see that k = = 385. Similarly, 5 = 10 · 5 = 50.
k=1
6 k=1
10
X
2k 2 + 5 = 2 · 385 + 50 = 820.


Putting all that together,
k=1

200
X
2k 3 − 6k 2 + 3 .


Example 10. Find the value of the sum
k=1

Let’s use the same approach as in the previous example. First, we’ll
use the properties to split this into individual sums, then factor out
the coefficients. After that, we’ll use the formulas above to evaluate it.
200
X 200
X 200
X 200
X
2k 3 − 6k 2 + 3 2k 3 − 6k 2 +


= 3
k=1 k=1 k=1 k=1
200
X 200
X 200
X
3 2
= 2 k −6 k + 3
k=1 k=1 k=1
 2  
200(201) 200(201)(401)
= 2 −6 + 200 · 3
2 6
= 2 · 404010000 − 6 · 2686700 + 200 · 3
= 791900400
The numbers in this example were horribly ugly, but we were able to
evaluate the sum without having to actually calculate all 200 terms,
then add them all up. In 5 small lines, we were able to add 200 numbers.

Try one on your own.

50
X
4k 2 − 18k + 2(−1)k


Example 11. Find the value of the sum
k=1