A sequence is defined by and , for all . Prove that for all .
Solutions — 2
Solution 1
We start with some observations. First, from the definition of it follows that for each positive integer we have
Hence, denoting , we have
Observe also that .
Now we prove by induction on that for all . The base case is valid since , . For the induction step, assume that for all . Using the relations above, we obtain
So, we are left to prove that . If is odd, then ; since is odd, is odd as well, so we have and hence .
Conversely, if is even, then we have , hence . The step is proved.
Solution 2
We will use the notation of and the relations above from the previous solution.
Assume the contrary and consider the minimal such that ; surely , and from we get , . Hence, we are especially interested in the set ; our aim is to prove that whenever thus coming to a contradiction.
For this purpose, we first describe the set inductively. We claim that (i) consists only of even numbers, (ii) , and (iii) for every even we have . Actually, (i) holds since , (ii) is straightforward, while (iii) follows from the relations .
Now, we are left to prove that if . We use the induction on . The base case is , that is, the minimal element of ; here we have , as desired.
For the induction step, consider some and let ; then is even, and by the induction hypothesis. We prove that . If then we have since is even; otherwise, , and , as desired. The proof is complete.