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Algebra Difficulty 6.9 National olympiad Prove it Estonia

Mama snail and her child want to visit a neighbour who lives at distance 7575 cm. Every hour, they have planned to use 4545 minutes to move and 1515 minutes to rest. On the nn-th hour, they move 1n2+1\frac{1}{n^2+1} metres forward, but instead of resting, the child pulls them backwards by 1n+1\frac{1}{n+1} of this hour's distance. Will they ever reach the neighbour, and if so, when?

Solution

Combining both parts of the nn-th hour, the total distance travelled forward is 1n2+11n+11n2+1=n(n+1)(n2+1)\frac{1}{n^2+1} - \frac{1}{n+1} \cdot \frac{1}{n^2+1} = \frac{n}{(n+1)(n^2+1)} metres. On the first hour, this means 14\frac{1}{4} metres. Notice that n(n+1)(n2+1)<n(n+1)n=1n1n+1\frac{n}{(n+1)(n^2+1)} < \frac{n}{(n+1)n} = \frac{1}{n} - \frac{1}{n+1}. Thus by the end of the mm-th hour, where m2m \ge 2, they have travelled less than 14+(1213)+(1314)++(1m1m+1)=341m+1\frac{1}{4} + (\frac{1}{2} - \frac{1}{3}) + (\frac{1}{3} - \frac{1}{4}) + \dots + (\frac{1}{m} - \frac{1}{m+1}) = \frac{3}{4} - \frac{1}{m+1} metres, which is less than 7575 centimetres. Thus they will never reach the neighbour by the end of the hour.

We will show that they will also not reach the neighbour between the two parts of an hour. Indeed, 4545 minutes after starting they have gone 12\frac{1}{2} metres and 11 hour and 4545 minutes after starting 14+15\frac{1}{4} + \frac{1}{5} metres, both less than 7575 centimetres. But if m2m \ge 2, then mm hours and 4545 minutes after starting they have travelled less than 341m+1+1(m+1)2+1\frac{3}{4} - \frac{1}{m+1} + \frac{1}{(m+1)^2+1} metres, which is still less than 7575 centimetres, as 1(m+1)2+1<1m+1\frac{1}{(m+1)^2+1} < \frac{1}{m+1}.

Thus they will never reach the neighbour.

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Source: MathNet, licensed CC-BY-4.0. Statement and solution reproduced as published; topic and difficulty added by this site.