Maths Olympiad Prep

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Algebra Difficulty 5.4 AIME, harder Prove it Taiwan

Find the integer part of
11+3+15+7++197+99 \frac{1}{1 + \sqrt{3}} + \frac{1}{\sqrt{5} + \sqrt{7}} + \cdots + \frac{1}{\sqrt{97} + \sqrt{99}}

Solution

Using
1n+n+214(1n+1n+2) \frac{1}{\sqrt{n} + \sqrt{n+2}} \le \frac{1}{4} \left( \frac{1}{\sqrt{n}} + \frac{1}{\sqrt{n+2}} \right)
we obtain
S=11+3+15+7++197+99<14(11+13+15++199)=14+14(13+15++199)<14+12(11+3+13+5++197+99)=14+14(31+53++9997)=14+14(991)=994=2+ϵ,0<ϵ<1. \begin{align*} S &= \frac{1}{1+\sqrt{3}} + \frac{1}{\sqrt{5}+\sqrt{7}} + \cdots + \frac{1}{\sqrt{97}+\sqrt{99}} \\ < & \frac{1}{4} \left( \frac{1}{\sqrt{1}} + \frac{1}{\sqrt{3}} + \frac{1}{\sqrt{5}} + \cdots + \frac{1}{\sqrt{99}} \right) \\ &= \frac{1}{4} + \frac{1}{4} \left( \frac{1}{\sqrt{3}} + \frac{1}{\sqrt{5}} + \cdots + \frac{1}{\sqrt{99}} \right) \\ < & \frac{1}{4} + \frac{1}{2} \left( \frac{1}{\sqrt{1}+\sqrt{3}} + \frac{1}{\sqrt{3}+\sqrt{5}} + \cdots + \frac{1}{\sqrt{97}+\sqrt{99}} \right) \\ &= \frac{1}{4} + \frac{1}{4} \left( \sqrt{3} - \sqrt{1} + \sqrt{5} - \sqrt{3} + \cdots + \sqrt{99} - \sqrt{97} \right) \\ &= \frac{1}{4} + \frac{1}{4} \left( \sqrt{99} - 1 \right) \\ &= \frac{\sqrt{99}}{4} = 2 + \epsilon, \quad 0 < \epsilon < 1. \end{align*}
On the other hand,
S>12(11+3+13+5+17+9++199+101)=14(31+53++10199)=14(1011)=2+δ,0<δ<1. \begin{align*} S &> \frac{1}{2} \left( \frac{1}{\sqrt{1}+\sqrt{3}} + \frac{1}{\sqrt{3}+\sqrt{5}} + \frac{1}{\sqrt{7}+\sqrt{9}} + \cdots + \frac{1}{\sqrt{99}+\sqrt{101}} \right) \\ &= \frac{1}{4} \left( \sqrt{3} - \sqrt{1} + \sqrt{5} - \sqrt{3} + \cdots + \sqrt{101} - \sqrt{99} \right) \\ &= \frac{1}{4} (\sqrt{101} - 1) = 2 + \delta, \quad 0 < \delta < 1. \end{align*}
Therefore the integer part of SS is 22.

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Source: MathNet, licensed CC-BY-4.0. Statement translated into English from the original; metadata (topic, difficulty) added by this project.