Polygon

Calculus Level pending

Let A = 1 k A=\sum { \frac { 1 }{ k } }

where a regular k k -gon can be constructed with only a straightedge and compass.

Find the value of 10000 A \left\lfloor 10000A \right\rfloor .


The answer is 19014.

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1 solution

Mark Hennings
Mar 19, 2017

It is a standard result that the constructible regular n n -gons are such that n 3 n \ge 3 can be written in the form n = 2 a p 1 p 2 p t n \; = \; 2^a p_1 p_2 \cdots p_t where a 0 a \ge 0 and p 1 , p 2 , , p t p_1,p_2,\ldots,p_t are distinct Fermat primes (primes of the form F m = 2 2 m + 1 F_m = 2^{2^m} + 1 for some integer m 0 m \ge 0 ) when t > 0 t > 0 . The sum of all such reciprocals is A = ( a 0 2 a ) p ( 1 + 1 p ) 1 1 2 = 2 p ( 1 + 1 p ) 3 2 A \; = \; \left(\sum_{a \ge 0} 2^{-a}\right) \prod_{p} \left(1 + \tfrac{1}{p}\right) - 1 - \tfrac12 \; = \; 2\prod_{p} \left(1 + \tfrac{1}{p}\right) - \tfrac32 where the product is over all Fermat primes. Now F 0 = 3 F_0=3 , F 1 = 5 F_1=5 , F 2 = 17 F_2 = 17 , F 3 = 257 F_3=257 and F 4 = 65537 F_4 = 65537 are all prime, but F m F_m is not prime for 5 m 32 5 \le m \le 32 . Thus A 2 × 4 3 × 6 5 × 18 17 × 258 257 × 65538 65537 3 2 = 4869735552 1431655765 A \; \approx \; 2 \times \tfrac43 \times \tfrac65 \times \tfrac{18}{17} \times \tfrac{258}{257} \times \tfrac{65538}{65537} - \tfrac32 \; = \; \tfrac{4869735552}{1431655765} and hence the answer is 10000 A = 19014 \lfloor 10000A \rfloor = \boxed{19014} . This approximation to A A is certainly good enough to estimate A A to the required 4 4 decimal places, since the next Fermat prime, if it exists and whatever it may be, will be seriously huge, and will therefore not change the answer obtained by this approximation. Of course, if there are no other Fermat primes beyond F 4 F_4 , then the formula given above is not an approximation.

Nice Solution! +1!

Joel Yip - 4 years, 2 months ago

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