Maths Olympiad Prep

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Algebra Difficulty 5.1 AIME, harder Prove it United States

Problem:

Let x<0.1x < 0.1 be a positive real number. Let the foury series be 4+4x+4x2+4x3+4 + 4x + 4x^{2} + 4x^{3} + \ldots, and let the fourier series be 4+44x+444x2+4444x3+4 + 44x + 444x^{2} + 4444x^{3} + \ldots. Suppose that the sum of the fourier series is four times the sum of the foury series. Compute xx.

Solutions — 2

Solution 1

Solution:

The sum of the foury series can be expressed as 41x\frac{4}{1-x} by geometric series. The fourier series can be expressed as
49((101)+(1001)x+(10001)x2+)=49((10+100x+1000x2+)(1+x+x2+))=49(10110x11x) \begin{aligned} & \frac{4}{9}\left((10-1)+(100-1)x+(1000-1)x^{2}+\ldots\right) \\ & = \frac{4}{9}\left(\left(10+100x+1000x^{2}+\ldots\right)-\left(1+x+x^{2}+\ldots\right)\right) \\ & = \frac{4}{9}\left(\frac{10}{1-10x}-\frac{1}{1-x}\right) \end{aligned}
Now we solve for xx in the equation
49(10110x11x)=441x \frac{4}{9}\left(\frac{10}{1-10x}-\frac{1}{1-x}\right) = 4 \cdot \frac{4}{1-x}
by multiplying both sides by (110x)(1x)(1-10x)(1-x). We get x=340x = \frac{3}{40}.

Solution 2

Solution:

Let RR be the sum of the fourier series. Then the sum of the foury series is (110x)R(1-10x)R. Thus, 110x=1/4x=3/401-10x = 1/4 \Longrightarrow x = 3/40.

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