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Algebra Difficulty 5.3 AIME, harder Find the answer

A sequence {an}n1\left\{a_{n}\right\}_{n \geq 1} of positive reals is defined by the rule an+1an15=an4an22a_{n+1} a_{n-1}^{5}=a_{n}^{4} a_{n-2}^{2} for integers n>2n>2 together with the initial values a1=8a_{1}=8 and a2=64a_{2}=64 and a3=1024a_{3}=1024. Compute a1+a2+a3+\sqrt{a_{1}+\sqrt{a_{2}+\sqrt{a_{3}+\cdots}}}

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

Solution

Taking the base-2 log\log of the sequence {an}\left\{a_{n}\right\} converts the multiplicative rule to a more familiar additive rule: log2(an+1)4log2(an)+5log2(an1)2log2(an2)=0\log _{2}\left(a_{n+1}\right)-4 \log _{2}\left(a_{n}\right)+5 \log _{2}\left(a_{n-1}\right)-2 \log _{2}\left(a_{n-2}\right)=0. The characteristic equation is 0=x34x2+5x2=(x1)2(x2)0=x^{3}-4 x^{2}+5 x-2=(x-1)^{2}(x-2), so log2(an)\log _{2}\left(a_{n}\right) is of the form an+b+c2na \cdot n+b+c \cdot 2^{n} and we find an=22n+2n1a_{n}=2^{2 n+2^{n-1}}. Now, a1+a2+a3+=24+16+64+\sqrt{a_{1}+\sqrt{a_{2}+\sqrt{a_{3}+\cdots}}}=\sqrt{2} \cdot \sqrt{4+\sqrt{16+\sqrt{64+\cdots}}} We can estimate the new nested radical expression as 3, which expands thus 3=4+5=4+16+9=4+16+64+17=3=\sqrt{4+5}=\sqrt{4+\sqrt{16+9}}=\sqrt{4+\sqrt{16+\sqrt{64+17}}}=\cdots As a rigorous confirmation, we have 2k+1=4k+(2k+1+1)2^{k}+1=\sqrt{4^{k}+\left(2^{k+1}+1\right)}, as desired. It follows that the answer is 323 \sqrt{2}.

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