Let be a given natural number. We consider the sequence defined by , for every natural nonzero number .
Prove that, for every natural number , there are non-zero natural numbers so that the numbers are the consecutive terms of an arithmetic progression.
Solutions — 2
Solution 1
We will prove the requirement by induction on .
We notice that
therefore there is an arithmetic progression consisting of three terms of the sequence: .
We assume that there are non-zero natural numbers such that the numbers are the consecutive terms of an arithmetic progression. Considering , the numbers are in arithmetic progression (in the number of ).
We have:
where .
Therefore
are terms of the sequence .
They are in arithmetic progression, because when we divide the terms of an arithmetic progression by a non-zero real number, we still get an arithmetic progression.
In addition, we have , because the sequence is strictly monotone. With this, the proof is complete.
Solution 2
We notice that , for any nonzero natural numbers and .
For we consider the arithmetic progression . We divide each term by their product, thus obtaining terms of the sequence in arithmetic progression, because when we divide the terms of an arithmetic progression by a non-zero real number, we still get an arithmetic progression.