Let be a positive integer. Define a sequence by setting and, for each , letting be the unique integer in the range for which is divisible by . For instance, when the obtained sequence is . Prove that for any the sequence eventually becomes constant.
Solutions — 3
Solution 1
For , let
We have
On the other hand, for each , is a positive integer. Therefore
and the sequence of quotients is eventually constant. If , then
showing that the sequence is eventually constant as well.
Solution 2
For , let
Since , for , we have
Let be a positive integer such that (such an integer clearly exists). Then
We claim that
This follows from the fact that the sequence is uniquely determined and choosing , for , satisfies the range condition
and yields
Solution 3
For , let
We claim that for some we have . To this end, consider the sequence which computes the differences between and , i.e., whose -th term is . Note that the first term of this sequence is positive (it is equal to ) and that its terms are strictly decreasing since
Further, a negative term cannot immediately follow a positive term. Suppose otherwise, namely that and . Since and are divisible by and , respectively, we can tighten the above inequalities to and . But this would imply that , a contradiction. We conclude that the sequence of differences must eventually include a term equal to zero.
Let be a positive integer such that . We claim that
This follows from the fact that the sequence is uniquely determined and choosing , for , satisfies the range condition
and yields