Maths Olympiad Prep

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Algebra Difficulty 5.3 AIME, harder Prove it United States

Problem:
Let a1=3a_{1}=3, and for n>1n>1, let ana_{n} be the largest real number such that
4(an12+an2)=10an1an9 4\left(a_{n-1}^{2}+a_{n}^{2}\right)=10 a_{n-1} a_{n}-9
What is the largest positive integer less than a8a_{8}?

Solution

Solution:
Answer: 335
Let tnt_{n} be the larger real such that an=tn+1tna_{n}=t_{n}+\frac{1}{t_{n}}. Then t1=3+52t_{1}=\frac{3+\sqrt{5}}{2}. We claim that tn=2tn1t_{n}=2 t_{n-1}.

Writing the recurrence as a quadratic polynomial in ana_{n}, we have:
4an210an1an+4an12+9=0 4 a_{n}^{2}-10 a_{n-1} a_{n}+4 a_{n-1}^{2}+9=0
Using the quadratic formula, we see that
an=54an1+34an124. a_{n}=\frac{5}{4} a_{n-1}+\frac{3}{4} \sqrt{a_{n-1}^{2}-4}.
(We ignore the negative square root, since ana_{n} is the largest real number satisfying the polynomial.)

Substituting tn1+1tn1t_{n-1}+\frac{1}{t_{n-1}} for an1a_{n-1}, we see that
an124=tn122+1tn12, \sqrt{a_{n-1}^{2}-4}=\sqrt{t_{n-1}^{2}-2+\frac{1}{t_{n-1}^{2}}},
so we have:
an=54(tn1+1tn1)+34(tn11tn1)2=2tn1+12tn1 a_{n}=\frac{5}{4}\left(t_{n-1}+\frac{1}{t_{n-1}}\right)+\frac{3}{4} \sqrt{\left(t_{n-1}-\frac{1}{t_{n-1}}\right)^{2}}=2 t_{n-1}+\frac{1}{2 t_{n-1}}
so tn=2tn1t_{n}=2 t_{n-1}, as claimed.

Then
a8=128(3+5)2+2128(3+5). a_{8}=\frac{128(3+\sqrt{5})}{2}+\frac{2}{128(3+\sqrt{5})}.
The second term is vanishingly small, so a8=64(3+5)\left\lfloor a_{8}\right\rfloor=\lfloor 64(3+\sqrt{5})\rfloor.

We approximate 5\sqrt{5} to two decimal places as 2.242.24, making this expression 335.36=335\lfloor 335.36\rfloor=335.

Since our value of 5\sqrt{5} is correct to within 0.0050.005, the decimal is correct to within 0.320.32, which means the final answer is exact.

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