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jmc

algebra senior

Problem

The terms of the sequence defined by for are positive integers. Find the minimum possible value of .
Solution
The definition gives Subtracting consecutive equations yields and .

Suppose that . Then , , and so on. Because , it follows that Then which is a contradiction.

Therefore, for all , which implies that all terms with an odd index are equal, and all terms with an even index are equal. Thus as long as and are integers, all the terms are integers. The definition of the sequence then implies that , giving . The minimum value of occurs when , which has a sum of .
Final answer
90