Given a sequence satisfying , ():
(I) Conjecture a general formula for the sequence and use mathematical induction to prove your conclusion;
(II) Let be any two positive integers, use contradiction to prove: at least one of and is less than 2.
Solution
(I) From the given, we have . Since , we calculate the first few terms:
,
,
.
From this pattern, we can conjecture that .
To prove, consider the following:
1. Base case: When , . Therefore, the conjecture is correct.
2. Inductive step: Assume that for (where , ), the conjecture holds, i.e., . Then,
which implies the conjecture holds for as well.
Combining the base case and the inductive step, we have proven that the sequence follows the formula . Therefore,
(II) Assume and . Since , we have and . Adding these inequalities gives us , which implies .
However, since and , we get , which is a contradiction.
Therefore, our assumption is false, and at least one of and must be less than 2. Hence,
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