Find the largest positive real number x such that
where [x] denotes the greatest integer less than or equal to x.
Write your answer to the nearest hundredths.
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Let x = n + k , where n is an integer and 0 ≤ k < 1 . Therefore ⌊ n + k ⌋ = n , so n + k 2 = n 1 + ⌊ 2 n + 2 k ⌋ 1 .
Because of the ⌊ 2 x ⌋ , there are two possible options: 0 ≤ ⌊ 2 n + 2 k ⌋ ∴ n + k 2 n + k 2 4 n n k k < 2 1 : = 2 n = n 1 + 2 n 1 = 2 n 3 = 3 n + 3 k = 3 k = 3 n 2 1 ≤ ⌊ 2 n + 2 k ⌋ ∴ n + k 2 2 n ( 2 n + 1 ) 4 n 2 + 2 n n 2 + n k k < 1 : = 2 n + 1 = n 1 + 2 n + 1 1 = ( n + k ) ( 2 n + 1 ) + n ( n + k ) = 2 n 2 + n + 2 k n + k + n 2 + k n = 3 k n + k = 3 n + 1 n 2 + n The first option is only possible if n = 1 , as k must be less than 2 1 . This means x = 1 . 3 3 3 . . .
For the second option, we can rearrange the expression to be k = 3 n + 9 2 − 9 ( 3 n + 1 ) 2 , so that as n approaches infinity k approaches 3 n + 9 2 from the negative side for n > 0 . Since 3 n + 9 2 is increasing, 3 n + 9 2 − 9 ( 3 n + 1 ) 2 must also be increasing for n > 0 .
This means the largest possible value of n will be the largest integer before k exceeds 1, as for this option 2 1 ≤ k < 1 . Through experimentation, we find that this value is n = 2 , as when n = 3 , k > 1 . From the equation above, when n = 2 , k = 7 6 , which means the largest positive value of x is 2 + 7 6 ≈ 2 . 8 5 7 1