Determine the maximum value of the sum
over all sequences of nonnegative real numbers satisfying
Solution
The answer is .
By AM-GM, we have
\begin{align*}
2^{n+1}(a_1\cdots a_n)^{1/n} &= \left((4a_1)(4^2a_2)\cdots (4^na_n)\right)^{1/n}\\
& \leq \frac{\sum_{k=1}^n (4^k a_k)}{n}.
\end{align*}
Thus
\begin{align*}
2S &\leq \sum_{n=1}^\infty \frac{\sum_{k=1}^n (4^k a_k)}{4^n} \\
&= \sum_{n=1}^\infty \sum_{k=1}^n (4^{k-n}a_k) = \sum_{k=1}^\infty \sum_{n=k}^\infty (4^{k-n}a_k) \\
&= \sum_{k=1}^\infty \frac{4a_k}{3} = \frac{4}{3}
\end{align*}
and . Equality is achieved when for all , since in this case for all .
Want a route through all this instead of an archive? The track
puts 2,000 problems in a working order, from AMC 10 level to the IMO shortlist.