Maths Olympiad Prep

Library / /47 of 82

Algebra Difficulty 5.2 AIME, harder Prove it United States

Problem:
Let g1(x)=13(1+x+x2+)g_{1}(x) = \frac{1}{3}(1 + x + x^{2} + \cdots) for all values of xx for which the right hand side converges. Let gn(x)=g1(gn1(x))g_{n}(x) = g_{1}(g_{n-1}(x)) for all integers n2n \geq 2. What is the largest integer rr such that gr(x)g_{r}(x) is defined for some real number xx?

Solution

Solution:
Notice that the series is geometric with ratio xx, so it converges if 1<x<1-1 < x < 1. Also notice that where g1(x)g_{1}(x) is defined, it is equal to 13(1x)\frac{1}{3(1-x)}. The image of g1(x)g_{1}(x) is then the interval (16,)\left(\frac{1}{6}, \infty\right). The image of g2(x)g_{2}(x) is simply the values of g1(x)g_{1}(x) for xx in (16,1)\left(\frac{1}{6}, 1\right), which is the interval (25,)\left(\frac{2}{5}, \infty\right). Similarly, the image of g3(x)g_{3}(x) is (59,)\left(\frac{5}{9}, \infty\right), the image of g4(x)g_{4}(x) is (34,)\left(\frac{3}{4}, \infty\right), and the image of g5(x)g_{5}(x) is (43,)\left(\frac{4}{3}, \infty\right). As this does not intersect the interval (1,1)(-1, 1), g6(x)g_{6}(x) is not defined for any xx, so the answer is 55.

Want a route through all this instead of an archive? The track puts 2,000 problems in a working order, from AMC 10 level to the IMO shortlist.

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