Problem:
A sequence of positive integers satisfies
for all positive integers . If , how many possible values can take? (For a real number , denotes the largest integer that is not greater than .)
Problem:
A sequence of positive integers satisfies
for all positive integers . If , how many possible values can take? (For a real number , denotes the largest integer that is not greater than .)
Solution:
It is straightforward to show that if , then for all . Since is an increasing function in , it follows that the set of possible is of the form for some , which will be the answer to the problem.
Consider the sequence , which has the recurrence
It has the property that is divisible by . Rearranging the recurrence, we see that
and as the are integers, we get . For , this means that the largest possible value of (call this ) is the smallest multiple of which is at least . Also, since , we find , meaning that the largest value for is , and thus the answer is . We have now derived a procedure for deriving from . To speed up the computation, let . Then, since
we find
We now start from and wish to find .
Applying the recurrence, we find , and so on until we reach . Then, becomes greater than 1 and we find , and so on until . The rest can be done manually, with , and . The last few steps may be easier to perform by converting back into the .