Evaluate
2 1 × 2 1 + 2 1 2 1 × 2 1 + 2 1 2 1 + 2 1 2 1 ⋯
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May I ask, can it be solve by using algebra? :)
Nice problem and solution, Megh. This is a variation of a significant series known as Viète's formula , and was the first infinite (product) sequence found in Europe.
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By using algebra I'm getting 0.653
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Can you show your approach,
for inserting the image here( in case you don't know how to write in latex), then write in a notebook , take a photograph upload on internet on sites like postimage.org etc and copy the image link
and here write ! [Description or leave it blank] ( URL of the image) , Here don't leave any blank between the brackets
I did this numerically and got the equivalent of 2/pi. I took 200 nestings which was more than enough.
UZ, are there some typos in your solution? Third equation line from bottom - a missing 2 in sin(x). But more troubling for me is I don't see how you got the expression for P(n) just above where you wrote 2sinxcosx = sin2x. Since the expression ends with cos(x/2) you would have to multiply and divided by 2sin(x) so 2cos(x)sin(x) = sin(2x). This sin(2x) never cancels out as you indicate. Proceeding as you suggest, the last multiply and divide would be on the cos(x/2^n) factor, which would leave a sin(x/2^n) in the denominator, not sin(x/2^(n-1)). Further it seems that we must multiply and divide by 2, n+1 times not n times, since the exponent on 2 goes from zero to n. All of this means that where you have n-1 in the third line from the bottom equation, I think you should have n, and where you have n I think you should have n+1. The final result is the same.
I may have missed something obvious, but any clarification would be appreciated. I also know this problem is pretty old.
I used python to solve it and got a result of 0.6366197723675812, which is extremely close to 2/pi
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c o s 4 π = 2 1 , 4 π = x
2 1 + 2 1 2 1 = 2 1 + c o s x = c o s 2 x
Similarly,
2 1 + 2 1 2 1 + 2 1 2 1 = c o s 4 x
thus it becomes
P ( n ) = c o s 2 n x c o s 2 n − 1 x . . . . c o s x
l i m n → ∞ P ( x )
P ( n ) = 2 s i n 2 n − 1 x 2 s i n 2 n − 1 x c o s 2 n − 1 x c o s 2 n − 2 x . . . . . c o s 2 x
2 s i n x c o s x = s i n 2 x
thus we get(multiplying and divivding by 2 n times and applying the above identity in each step)
l i m n → ∞ P ( n ) = l i m n → ∞ 2 n s i n 2 n − 1 x s i n 2 x
l i m n → ∞ P ( n ) = l i m n → ∞ 2 n 2 n − 1 x s i n 2 n − 1 x × 2 n − 1 x s i n x
l i m n → ∞ P ( n ) = 2 x s i n 2 x
π 2 s i n 2 π = π 2