Let a1=3, and for n>1, let an be the largest real number such that 4(an−12+an2)=10an−1an−9 What is the largest positive integer less than a8 ?
A number or a short expression. Spacing and $ signs are ignored.
Solution
Let tn be the larger real such that an=tn+tn1. Then t1=23+5. We claim that tn=2tn−1. Writing the recurrence as a quadratic polynomial in an, we have: 4an2−10an−1an+4an−12+9=0 Using the quadratic formula, we see that an=45an−1+43an−12−4. (We ignore the negative square root, since an is the largest real number satisfying the polynomial.) Substituting tn−1+tn−11 for an−1, we see that an−12−4=tn−12−2+tn−121, so we have: an=45(tn−1+tn−11)+43(tn−1−tn−11)2=2tn−1+2tn−11 so tn=2tn−1, as claimed. Then a8=2128(3+5)+128(3+5)2. The second term is vanishingly small, so ⌊a8⌋=⌊64(3+5)⌋. We approximate 5 to two decimal places as 2.24, making this expression ⌊335.36⌋=335. Since our value of 5 is correct to within 0.005, the decimal is correct to within 0.32, which means the final answer is exact.
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