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algebra intermediate

Problem

For any sequence of real numbers , define to be the sequence , whose term is . Suppose that all of the terms of the sequence are , and that . Find .
Solution
The th term of is so we have for all

For a particular summing up the equations gives (with cancellation along the diagonals). Writing this equation down from to we get Summing these up then gives That is, which is of the form where and are constants.

We are given that which means that has roots and Therefore it must be the case that for all Thus,
Final answer
819