Show that each of the following sequences is monotonic by determining whether it is increasing, nondecreasing, decreasing, or nonincreasing:

Solution
(a) We use the algebraic difference test. $$\begin{eqnarray*} s_{n+1}-s_{n} &=& \frac{n+1}{n+2}-\frac{n}{n+1}=\frac{n^{2}+2n+1-n^{2}-2n}{(n+2)(n+1)}\\[5pt] &=&\frac{1}{(n+2)(n+1)}>0 \qquad \hbox{ for all }n\geq 1 \end{eqnarray*}$$

So, $\{ s_{n}\}$ is an increasing sequence.

(b) When the sequence contains a factorial, the algebraic ratio test is usually easiest to use. $$\frac{s_{n+1}}{s_{n}}=\frac{\dfrac{e^{n+1}}{(n+1)!}}{\dfrac{e^{n}}{n!}}=\left( {\frac{e^{n+1}}{e^{n}}}\right) \frac{n!}{(n+1)!}=\frac{e}{n+1}<1 \qquad \hbox{ for all }n\geq 2$$

After the first term, $\{ s_{n}\} =\left\{ \dfrac{e^{n}}{n!}\right\}$ is a decreasing sequence.

(c) Here, we use the derivative of the related function $f(x) =\ln x$ of the sequence $\{ s_{n}\} =\{\ln n\}.$ Since $\dfrac{d}{dx}\ln x=\dfrac{1}{x}>0$ for all $x>0$, it follows that $f$ is an increasing function and so the sequence $\{\ln n\}$ is an increasing sequence.