Maths Olympiad Prep

Library / /664 of 860

Algebra Difficulty 5.3 AIME, harder Find the answer

Find {ln(1+e)}+{ln(1+e2)}+{ln(1+e4)}+{ln(1+e8)}+\{\ln (1+e)\}+\left\{\ln \left(1+e^{2}\right)\right\}+\left\{\ln \left(1+e^{4}\right)\right\}+\left\{\ln \left(1+e^{8}\right)\right\}+\cdots where {x}=xx\{x\}=x-\lfloor x\rfloor denotes the fractional part of xx.

A number or a short expression. Spacing and $ signs are ignored.

Solution

Since ln(1+e2k)\ln \left(1+e^{2^{k}}\right) is just larger than 2k2^{k}, its fractional part is ln(1+e2k)lne2k=\ln \left(1+e^{2^{k}}\right)-\ln e^{2^{k}}= ln(1+e2k)\ln \left(1+e^{-2^{k}}\right). But now notice that k=0n(1+x2k)=1+x+x2++x2n+11\prod_{k=0}^{n}\left(1+x^{2^{k}}\right)=1+x+x^{2}+\cdots+x^{2^{n+1}-1} (This is easily proven by induction or by noting that every nonnegative integer less than 2n+12^{n+1} has a unique ( n+1n+1 )-bit binary expansion.) If x<1|x|<1, this product converges to 11x\frac{1}{1-x} as nn goes to infinity. Therefore, k=0ln(1+e2k)=lnk=0(1+(e1)2k)=ln11e1=lnee1=1ln(e1)\sum_{k=0}^{\infty} \ln \left(1+e^{-2^{k}}\right)=\ln \prod_{k=0}^{\infty}\left(1+\left(e^{-1}\right)^{2^{k}}\right)=\ln \frac{1}{1-e^{-1}}=\ln \frac{e}{e-1}=1-\ln (e-1)

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.

Source: Omni-MATH, licensed Apache-2.0. Statement and solution reproduced as published; topic and difficulty added by this site.