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Algebra Difficulty 6.5 National olympiad Prove it Saudi Arabia

Find all real numbers xx that can be written as
x=a0a1a2an+a1a2a3an+a2a3a4an++an2an1an+an1an, x = \frac{a_{0}}{a_{1} a_{2} \ldots a_{n}} + \frac{a_{1}}{a_{2} a_{3} \ldots a_{n}} + \frac{a_{2}}{a_{3} a_{4} \ldots a_{n}} + \ldots + \frac{a_{n-2}}{a_{n-1} a_{n}} + \frac{a_{n-1}}{a_{n}},
where n,a1,a2,,ann, a_{1}, a_{2}, \ldots, a_{n} are positive integers and
1=a0a1<a2<<an. 1 = a_{0} \leq a_{1} < a_{2} < \ldots < a_{n}.

Solution

It is clear that xQx \in \mathbb{Q} and x>0x > 0.

On the other hand, if xx has such a representation, then from the inequalities
1a1a2an1a2a3ana1a2a3ana21a2a3an=1a3a4an1a2a3anan2an1anan11an1an=1an1an1anan1anan1an=11an, \begin{aligned} & \frac{1}{a_{1} a_{2} \ldots a_{n}} \leq \frac{1}{a_{2} a_{3} \ldots a_{n}} \\ & \frac{a_{1}}{a_{2} a_{3} \ldots a_{n}} \leq \frac{a_{2} - 1}{a_{2} a_{3} \ldots a_{n}} = \frac{1}{a_{3} a_{4} \ldots a_{n}} - \frac{1}{a_{2} a_{3} \ldots a_{n}} \\ & \frac{a_{n-2}}{a_{n-1} a_{n}} \leq \frac{a_{n-1} - 1}{a_{n-1} a_{n}} = \frac{1}{a_{n}} - \frac{1}{a_{n-1} a_{n}} \\ & \frac{a_{n-1}}{a_{n}} \leq \frac{a_{n} - 1}{a_{n}} = 1 - \frac{1}{a_{n}}, \end{aligned}
we get x11anx \leq 1 - \frac{1}{a_{n}}, hence x(0,1]x \in (0, 1]. We note that x=1x = 1 can be represented in this form by considering n=1n = 1 and a1=1a_{1} = 1.

If x=pq(0,1)x = \frac{p}{q} \in (0, 1), where pp and qq are positive integers, p<qp < q, then we can write
x=x1=pq(112p+123p+234p+p1p), x = x \cdot 1 = \frac{p}{q} \left( \frac{1}{1 \cdot 2 \ldots p} + \frac{1}{2 \cdot 3 \ldots p} + \frac{2}{3 \cdot 4 \ldots p} + \frac{p-1}{p} \right),
and we can consider n=pn = p, a1=1a_{1} = 1, a2=2a_{2} = 2, \ldots, ap1=p1a_{p-1} = p-1, ap=qa_{p} = q.

The desired numbers are the elements of the set Q(0,1]\mathbb{Q} \cap (0, 1].

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