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VMO

Vietnam algebra

Problem

a) Let be a sequence defined by for all positive integers . Prove that there are finite values of such that .

b) Let be a sequence defined by for all positive integers . Prove that there are infinite values of such that .
Solution
a. It is obvious that for all . Hence, and . It follows that and Therefore, there exists a positive integer such that Then by direct calculation, it deduces that for ,

b. Back to our problem, assume that there exists finite values of that . It follows that there exists a positive integer that for all . Because , it implies that there exists a positive integer that for all . Because is an increasing sequence and , it follows that there exists infinite values of which . Consider such values of , by the above inequality, we obtain or Notice that , thus . This contradiction finishes the given problem.

Techniques

Floors and ceilingsLogarithmic functions