For each positive integer let the set consist of all numbers . For example,
Find the number of elements in .
Solution
The greatest element of set is
and the smallest element of is
Also, the difference of any two elements of is even, hence all elements of are of the same parity.
Let us prove that all integers between and , and of the same parity with , belong to , and these are all the elements of . Indeed, let be an element such that .
Case 1. If the writing of begins with -1 , then by changing -1 by +1 , we get .
Case 2. If the writing of begins with +1 , then consider the first term with sign -. A such term exists, otherwise
In this case we have
where is the considered term. By changing the signs of terms and , it follows .
We obtain
, that is the number of elements in is .
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