I Find Blackboards Cool

I have an infinite number of 1 s 1's written on a blackboard.

Jake chooses 2 2 of the integers p p and q q and replaces them with p + q 4 = k 1 \dfrac{p+q}{4}={ k }_{ 1 } . (he removes p p and q q and then writes p + q 4 \dfrac{p+q}{4} )

Now he repeats the process with the number k 1 { k }_{ 1 } and another integer to achieve k 2 { k }_{ 2 } , and repeats again with the number k 2 { k }_{ 2 } and another integer to achieve k 3 { k }_{ 3 }

k 2 = 1 + k 1 4 , k 3 = 1 + k 2 4 { k }_{ 2 }=\frac { 1+{ k }_{ 1 } }{ 4 } ,\quad { k }_{ 3 }=\frac { 1+{ k }_{ 2 } }{ 4 }

Since he is an immortal, he does this again and again until he is left with only a single number...

Given that this number can be expressed as a b \frac{a}{b} , find a + b a+b


Try my Other Problems


The answer is 4.

This section requires Javascript.
You are seeing this because something didn't load right. We suggest you, (a) try refreshing the page, (b) enabling javascript if it is disabled on your browser and, finally, (c) loading the non-javascript version of this page . We're sorry about the hassle.

3 solutions

Jake Lai
Feb 4, 2015

The numbers k n k_{n} and k n + 1 k_{n+1} , as n n gets larger ( n n \rightarrow \infty ), should have less and less difference between them, ie k n k n + 1 1 + k n 4 k_{n} \sim k_{n+1} \sim \frac{1+k_{n}}{4} .

Alternatively, think of k n k_{n} as

k n = 1 + 1 + 1 + 4 4 4 = 1 + k n 4 k_{n} = \frac{1+\frac{1+\frac{1+\ldots}{4}}{4}}{4} = \frac{1+k_{n}}{4}

By these two perspectives, solving for k n k_{n} , we get

k n = 1 + k n 4 k n = 1 3 k_{n} = \frac{1+k_{n}}{4} \longrightarrow k_{n} = \boxed{\frac{1}{3}}

You haven't proof that it converges. Btw, hi immortal.

Julian Poon - 6 years, 4 months ago

Log in to reply

For any k 1 3 k \geq \frac{1}{3} , k 1 + k 4 k \geq \frac{1+k}{4} ? And hello to you too.

Jake Lai - 6 years, 4 months ago

Log in to reply

oh dang...

Julian Poon - 6 years, 4 months ago

A rigorous proof :

k 2 = 1 4 k 1 + 1 4 k_{2}=\frac{1}{4}k_1+\frac{1}{4}

k 3 = 1 4 k 2 + 1 4 = 1 4 2 k 1 + 1 4 + 1 4 2 k_{3}=\frac{1}{4}k_2+\frac{1}{4}=\frac{1}{4^2}k_1+\frac{1}{4}+\frac{1}{4^2}

k n + 1 = 1 4 n k 1 + i = 1 n 1 4 i k_{n+1}=\frac{1}{4^n}k_1+\sum_{i=1}^{n}\frac{1}{4^i}

Thus,

lim n k n + 1 = lim n 1 4 n k 1 + i = 1 n 1 4 i = 1 / 4 1 1 / 4 = 1 3 = a b \lim_{n \to \infty} k_{n+1} = \lim_{n \to \infty}\frac{1}{4^n}k_1+\sum_{i=1}^{n}\frac{1}{4^i} =\frac{1/4}{1-1/4}=\frac{1}{3}=\frac{a}{b}

Thus, a + b = 1 + 3 = 4 a+b=1+3=\boxed{4}

Brock Brown
Feb 4, 2015

Trying the problem from a mortal's perspective helps approach the right answer:

 1
 2
 3
 4
 5
 6
 7
 8
 9
10
11
12
from fractions import Fraction as frac
board = []
terms = 100
for i in xrange(terms):
    board.append(1)
def new(b):
    b[0] = frac(b[0]+b[1],4)
    del b[1]
    return b
while len(board) > 1:
    board = new(board)
print "Answer:", float(board[0])

Output:

Answer: 0.333333333333

0 pending reports

×

Problem Loading...

Note Loading...

Set Loading...