Maths Olympiad Prep

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Algebra Difficulty 5.2 AIME, harder Prove it United States

Problem:

Consider a sequence xnx_{n} such that x1=x2=1x_{1}=x_{2}=1, x3=23x_{3} = \frac{2}{3}. Suppose that xn=xn12xn22xn22xn1xn3x_{n} = \frac{x_{n-1}^{2} x_{n-2}}{2 x_{n-2}^{2} - x_{n-1} x_{n-3}} for all n4n \geq 4. Find the least nn such that xn1106x_{n} \leq \frac{1}{10^{6}}.

Solution

Solution:

The recursion simplifies to xn1xn+xn3xn2=2xn2xn1\frac{x_{n-1}}{x_{n}} + \frac{x_{n-3}}{x_{n-2}} = 2 \frac{x_{n-2}}{x_{n-1}}. So if we set yn=xn1xny_{n} = \frac{x_{n-1}}{x_{n}} for n2n \geq 2 then we have ynyn1=yn1yn2y_{n} - y_{n-1} = y_{n-1} - y_{n-2} for n3n \geq 3, which means that {yn}\{y_{n}\} is an arithmetic sequence. From the starting values we have y2=1y_{2} = 1, y3=32y_{3} = \frac{3}{2}, so yn=n2y_{n} = \frac{n}{2} for all nn. (This means that xn=2n1n!x_{n} = \frac{2^{n-1}}{n!}.) Since x1xn=y2y3yn\frac{x_{1}}{x_{n}} = y_{2} y_{3} \cdots y_{n}, it suffices to find the minimal nn such that the RHS is at least 10610^{6}. Note that

y2y3y12=1(1.522.533.5)(44.555.56)<2.5555=12.55<200212.5=500000<106y_{2} y_{3} \cdots y_{12} = 1 \cdot (1.5 \cdot 2 \cdot 2.5 \cdot 3 \cdot 3.5) \cdot (4 \cdot 4.5 \cdot 5 \cdot 5.5 \cdot 6) < 2.5^{5} \cdot 5^{5} = 12.5^{5} < 200^{2} \cdot 12.5 = 500000 < 10^{6},

while

y2y3y13=1(1.522.53)(3.544.5)(55.566.5)>2060900=1080000>106 y_{2} y_{3} \cdots y_{13} = 1 \cdot (1.5 \cdot 2 \cdot 2.5 \cdot 3) \cdot (3.5 \cdot 4 \cdot 4.5) \cdot (5 \cdot 5.5 \cdot 6 \cdot 6.5) > 20 \cdot 60 \cdot 900 = 1080000 > 10^{6}

so the answer is 13.

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Source: MathNet, licensed CC-BY-4.0. Statement reproduced verbatim; metadata (topic, difficulty) added by this project.