Given a sequence of real numbers
Prove that the sequence has a finite limit as and calculate this limit.
Solution
For , we have
We first prove that
The proof proceeds by induction on . For we have
Suppose that for some , then we have
Thus, (2) is proved. From (1) and (2), we have
Therefore, is a decreasing sequence for and is bounded by 1. This implies that has a finite limit. Now, we can easily find this limit by solving the equation
which implies that the limit is 1.
Want a route through all this instead of an archive? The track
puts 2,000 problems in a working order, from AMC 10 level to the IMO shortlist.