Skip to main content
OlympiadHQ

Browse · MathNet

Print

National Olympiad of Argentina

Argentina algebra

Problem

21 numbers are written in a row. If , , are three consecutive ones then . The first number is , the last one is . Find the 15th number.
Solution
Write as . This gives , or . So look at the sequence of reciprocals of the given numbers: means that consecutive reciprocals differ by the same amount which we denote by .

Hence the last reciprocal can be obtained from the first one by adding 20 times. Thus , yielding . To obtain the 15th reciprocal we add to the first one, 100, which gives . Therefore the 15th original number is .
Final answer
10/1007

Techniques

Recurrence relationsFractions