Let {ai}i≥0 be a sequence of real numbers defined by an+1=an2−22020⋅2n−11 for n≥0. Determine the largest value for a0 such that {ai}i≥0 is bounded.
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Solution
Let a0=220201(t+t1), with t≥1. (If a0<220181 then no real t exists, but we ignore these values because a0 is smaller.) Then, we can prove by induction that an=22020⋅2n1(t2n+t2n1). For this to be bounded, it is easy to see that we just need 22020⋅2nt2n=(22020t)2n to be bounded, since the second term approaches 0. We see that this is is equivalent to t≤22020/2, which means a0≤220201(22020+(21)2020)=1+220201.
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