Am scris aici ce s-a întâmplat ieri , Vineri 16 Octombrie. Voiam să-i fac o surpriză dar se pare că mai mult am necăjit-o. Nici nu mi-a răspuns la ce i-am scris. Am făcut un prim pas pe care îl voiam altfel.
Să trec mai bine la locul unde știu pașii mai bine...
A problem from GMB 1/1999, page 35 :
24043. Consider the sequence $(x_n)_{n\geqslant 0}$ defined as follows :
$x_0=0\;\;,\;\;x_1=\sqrt{2}\;\;,\;\;x_{n+1}=3x_n+\sqrt{8x_n^2+2}\;\;for\;n\in\mathbb{N}\;,\,n\geqslant 1.$
Determine the general term $x_n$ of the sequence.
{Author : } Alfred ECKSTEIN , Șiria, Arad
ANSWER CiP
$x_n=\frac{(3+2\sqrt{2})^n-(3-2\sqrt{2})^n}{4}\;\;,\;n=0,\;1,\;2,\;\dots$
Solution CiP
An initial calculation gives us $x_2=6\sqrt{2}\;,\;x_3=35\sqrt{2}.$ Let us also note that $x_{n+1}>0$ (simple inductive reasoning : $x_1>0\;and\; x_n>0\Rightarrow x_{n+1}>0$) and that $x_{n+1}>x_n$.
Squaring the relation $x_{n+1}-3x_n=\sqrt{8x_n^2+2}$ so
$x_{n+1}^2-6x_{n+1}x_n+9x_n^2=8x_n^2+2$ we obtain
$x_{n+1}^2-6x_{n+1}x_n+x_n^2-\color{Red}2=0 \tag{1}$
The constant term 2 in (1) somewhat complicates the calculations. To ELIMINATE it, we proceed as follows:
We write the equation (1) for $n+1\; instead\; of\; n$ :
$x_{n+2}^2-6x_{n+2}x_{n+1}+x_{n+1}^2-\color{Red}2=0 \tag{2}$
Now we SUBSTRACT (2) - (1) and we get :
$x_{n+2}^2-6x_{n+2}x_{n+1}+6x_{n+1}x_n-x_n^2=0\;\Leftrightarrow$
$\Leftrightarrow\;\;(x_{n+2}^2-x_n^2)-6x_{n+1}(x_{n+2}-x_n)=0\;\Leftrightarrow$
$\Leftrightarrow\;\;(x_{n+2}-x_n)(x_{n+2}+x_n-6x_{n+1})=0$
and since the sequence is increasing, the first parenthesis above cannot be zero, so it remains :
$x_{n+2}=6x_{n+1}-x_n \tag{3}$
But (3) is a second-order linear recurrence , which is handled in a known way. The equation
$\lambda^2=6\lambda -1$
has roots $\lambda_{1,2}=3\pm 2\sqrt{2}$ , so the general term $x_n$ is of the form
$x_n=A\cdot \lambda_1^n+B\cdot \lambda_2^n$
and the constants $A\; and\; B$ are determined from the initial conditions. In our case
$x_0=A+B=0\;,\;x_1=A(3+2\sqrt{2})+B(3-2\sqrt{2})=\sqrt{2}\;\;\Rightarrow\;A=-B=-\frac{1}{4}$
We obtained the answer.
$\blacksquare$
REMARK CiP The idea is not new; see, for example
360 Problems for Mathematical Contests
GIL Publishing House, Zalău, 2003
Problem 47 on page 53—solved on pages 76–77—and the bibliographic sources cited there.
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