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Algebra Difficulty 6.7 National olympiad Prove it Romania

Let aa be a given natural number. We consider the sequence (xn)n1(x_n)_{n \ge 1} defined by xn=11+nax_n = \frac{1}{1+na}, for every natural nonzero number nn.
Prove that, for every natural number k3k \ge 3, there are non-zero natural numbers n1<n2<<nkn_1 < n_2 < \dots < n_k so that the numbers xn1,xn2,,xnkx_{n_1}, x_{n_2}, \dots, x_{n_k} are the consecutive terms of an arithmetic progression.

Solutions — 2

Solution 1

We will prove the requirement by induction on kk.

We notice that
11+ma+1(1+ma)(1+2ma)=21+2ma, \frac{1}{1+ma} + \frac{1}{(1+ma)(1+2ma)} = \frac{2}{1+2ma},
therefore there is an arithmetic progression consisting of three terms of the sequence: xm,x2m,x2m2a+3mx_m, x_{2m}, x_{2m^2a+3m}.

We assume that there are kk non-zero natural numbers n1<n2<<nkn_1 < n_2 < \dots < n_k such that the numbers xn1,xn2,,xnkx_{n_1}, x_{n_2}, \dots, x_{n_k} are the consecutive terms of an arithmetic progression. Considering y=2xn1xn2y = 2x_{n_1} - x_{n_2}, the numbers y,xn1,xn2,,xnky, x_{n_1}, x_{n_2}, \dots, x_{n_k} are in arithmetic progression (in the number of k+1k+1).

We have:
y=21+n1a11+n2a=1+pa(1+n1a)(1+n2a)=1+pa1+(n1+n2+n1n2a)a, y = \frac{2}{1+n_1a} - \frac{1}{1+n_2a} = \frac{1+pa}{(1+n_1a)(1+n_2a)} = \frac{1+pa}{1+(n_1+n_2+n_1n_2a)a},
where p=2n2n1p = 2n_2 - n_1.

Therefore
y1+pa,xn11+pa,xn21+pa,,xnk1+pa \frac{y}{1+pa}, \frac{x_{n_1}}{1+pa}, \frac{x_{n_2}}{1+pa}, \dots, \frac{x_{n_k}}{1+pa}
are k+1k+1 terms xm1,xm2,,xmk+1x_{m_1}, x_{m_2}, \dots, x_{m_{k+1}} of the sequence (xn)n1(x_n)_{n \ge 1}.

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 m1<m2<<mk+1m_1 < m_2 < \dots < m_{k+1}, because the sequence (xn)n1(x_n)_{n \ge 1} is strictly monotone. With this, the proof is complete.

Solution 2

We notice that (1+na)(1+ma)=1+(mn+m+n)a(1+na)(1+ma) = 1 + (mn + m + n)a, for any nonzero natural numbers mm and nn.

For k3k \ge 3 we consider the arithmetic progression 1+a,1+2a,,1+ka1+a, 1+2a, \dots, 1+ka. We divide each term by their product, thus obtaining kk terms of the sequence (xn)n1(x_n)_{n \ge 1} 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.

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