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Let a 0 , a 1 , a 2 , a_{0}, a_{1}, a_{2}, \dots be a sequence of positive real numbers such that a 2014 = 2014 a_{2014} = 2014 , and a n = 6 a n 3 4 a n 1 a n 2 a_{n} = 6a_{n-3}-4a_{n-1}-a_{n-2} for all integers n 3. n \geq 3. Find the sum of all possible values of a 10000 . a_{10000}.


The answer is 2014.

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1 solution

Steven Yuan
Nov 18, 2014

The closed form for a n a_{n} is of the form c 1 ( 1 ) n + c 2 ( 2 ) n + c 3 ( 3 ) n c_{1}(1)^{n}+c_{2}(-2)^{n}+c_{3}(-3)^{n} for some constants c 1 , c 2 , c_{1}, c_{2}, and c 3 . c_{3}. I won't go into much detail on how I got that, but it involves manipulating the recursion. For n = 2014 , n = 2014, we get a 2014 = 2014 = c 1 ( 1 ) 2014 + c 2 ( 2 ) 2014 + c 3 ( 3 ) 2014 . a_{2014} = 2014 = c_{1}(1)^{2014}+c_{2}(-2)^{2014}+c_{3}(-3)^{2014}. Now, notice the c 2 ( 2 ) n c_{2}(-2)^{n} and c 3 ( 3 ) n c_{3}(-3)^{n} terms in our closed form. If c 2 c_{2} and/or c 3 c_{3} are nonzero, then for some non-negative integer n n , a n a_{n} will be negative. (For example, for c 2 = 1 c_{2} = 1 and c 3 = 100 , n = 1000000... c_{3} = -100, n = 1000000... with a large number of 0 0 s will guarantee that a n a_{n} is negative.) Since all a n a_{n} are positive, we must have c 2 = c 3 = 0 c_{2} = c_{3} = 0 , so c 1 ( 1 ) n + c 2 ( 2 ) n + c 3 ( 3 ) n = c 1 = 2014 = a n . c_{1}(1)^{n}+c_{2}(-2)^{n}+c_{3}(-3)^{n} = c_{1} = 2014 = a_{n}. Thus, a 10000 a_{10000} can only be 2014 . \boxed{2014}.

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