Find the set consisting of all real values of such that the three numbers form a non-constant arithmetic progression (in that order).
Solution
The empty set, . Trivially, yield constant arithmetic progressions; we show that there are no other possibilities. If these numbers do form a progression, then, by the AM-GM (arithmetic mean-geometric mean) inequality, Assuming , we can divide by and obtain . However, then are less than 1, while is more than 1, so the given sequence cannot possibly be an arithmetic progression.
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