Find the least possible sum of 2021 terms of the sequence , where , and for every .
Solution
Answer: .
We show that the least sum arises in the case of the sequence ( for every ). Firstly, we show that this sequence meets the conditions of the problem. Indeed, if and are of the same parity then . If and have different parities then letting, w.l.o.g., be even, we obtain .
We prove now that if is an arbitrary sequence of integers satisfying the conditions of the problems then if for any positive integer . We proceed by induction on . The base cases and hold. If then, from the conditions of the problem,
which proves the induction step for even indices. The same holds for odd indices: If then
Thus the least sum of 2021 terms is , i.e., .
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