Maths Olympiad Prep

Library / Romanian Mathematical Olympiad /21 of 275

Romanian Mathematical Olympiad

Algebra Difficulty 5.0 AIME Prove it Romania

Prove that a sequence (an)n≥1(a_n)_{n \ge 1} having the property:
an−1m≤am≤mn a_n - \frac{1}{m} \le a_m \le \frac{m}{n}
for all m,n∈N∗,m≥nm, n \in \mathbb{N}^*, m \ge n, is convergent.

Solution

For m=n∈N∗m = n \in \mathbb{N}^* we get an≤1a_n \le 1, implying that the sequence is upper bounded.

Denote by L=sup⁡{an∣n∈N∗}L = \sup\{a_n \mid n \in \mathbb{N}^*\}. We get L≤1L \le 1. If ε>0\varepsilon > 0 is arbitrary we find n0∈N∗n_0 \in \mathbb{N}^* such that L−ε<an0≤LL - \varepsilon < a_{n_0} \le L.

Consider m0=max⁡{n0,1+⌊1an0−L+ε⌋}m_0 = \max\{n_0, 1 + \lfloor \frac{1}{a_{n_0} - L + \varepsilon} \rfloor\}. For m≥m0m \ge m_0 we have
am≥an0−1m≥an0−1m0>L−ε, a_m \ge a_{n_0} - \frac{1}{m} \ge a_{n_0} - \frac{1}{m_0} > L - \varepsilon,
That is ∣am−L∣<ε|a_m - L| < \varepsilon for all m≥m0m \ge m_0 proving that the sequence has LL as limit.

Want a route through all this instead of an archive? The track puts 2,604 problems in a working order, from Junior Challenge level to the IMO shortlist.

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