Maths Olympiad Prep

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, 2016

Algebra Difficulty 4.8 AIME Prove it United States

Problem:
Let the sequence {ai}i=0\{a_{i}\}_{i=0}^{\infty} be defined by a0=12a_{0}=\frac{1}{2} and an=1+(an11)2a_{n}=1+(a_{n-1}-1)^{2}. Find the product
i=0ai=a0a1a2 \prod_{i=0}^{\infty} a_{i} = a_{0} a_{1} a_{2} \ldots

Solution

Solution:
Let {bi}i=0\{b_{i}\}_{i=0}^{\infty} be defined by bn=an1b_{n}=a_{n}-1 and note that bn=bn12b_{n}=b_{n-1}^{2}. The infinite product is then
(1+b0)(1+b02)(1+b04)(1+b02k) (1+b_{0})(1+b_{0}^{2})(1+b_{0}^{4}) \ldots (1+b_{0}^{2^{k}}) \ldots
By the polynomial identity
(1+x)(1+x2)(1+x4)(1+x2k)=1+x+x2+x3+=11x (1+x)(1+x^{2})(1+x^{4}) \ldots (1+x^{2^{k}}) \cdots = 1+x+x^{2}+x^{3}+\cdots = \frac{1}{1-x}
Our desired product is then simply
11(a01)=23 \frac{1}{1-(a_{0}-1)} = \frac{2}{3}

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