A change of thinking

Calculus Level 5

n = 1 ( p = 2 x 1000 n p ) = 1000 x \displaystyle \left\lceil \sum _{ n=1 }^{ \infty }{ \left( \sum _{ p=2 }^{ x }{ \dfrac { 1000 }{ { n }^{ p } } } \right) } \right\rceil =1000x

Find the smallest positive integer value of x x which satisfies the given equation.


(This problem is original.)


The answer is 10.

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1 solution

Mark Hennings
Dec 27, 2015

We need to consider the function f ( n ) = 1000 p = 2 n ζ ( p ) 1000 x , n 2 , f(n) \; = \; \left\lceil 1000\sum_{p=2}^n \zeta(p) \right\rceil - 1000x \;, \qquad \qquad n \ge 2 \;, and calculate that f ( n ) f(n) is equal to 355 , 153 , 70 , 33 , 16 , 8 , 3 , 1 , 0 -355,-153, -70,-33, -16,-8, -3,-1,0 for n = 2 , 3 , , 10 n \,=\, 2,3,\ldots,10 . The answer is 10 10 .

Of course, since p = 2 ( ζ ( p ) 1 ) = 1 , \sum_{p=2}^\infty \big(\zeta(p) - 1\big) \; = \; 1 \;, we can show that f ( n ) = 1000 p > n ( ζ ( p ) 1 ) , n 2 , f(n) \; = \; -\left\lfloor 1000\sum_{p > n} \big(\zeta(p) - 1\big) \right\rfloor \;, \qquad \qquad n \ge 2 \;, which means that the sequence { f ( n ) } n 2 \{f(n)\}_{n \ge 2} is an increasing sequence of integers tending to 0 0 , and hence there exists an integer N N such that f ( n ) < 0 f(n) < 0 for all n < N n < N , with f ( n ) = 0 f(n) = 0 for all n N n \ge N . Finding this value of N N is the same as asking for the smallest value of n n such that p = 2 n ( ζ ( p ) 1 ) > 0.999 . \sum_{p=2}^n \big(\zeta(p) - 1\big) \; > \; 0.999 \;.

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