ΘρϵηΠατπ

Reciprocal of the Reciprocal
Let a,b be positive real numbers. Set x0=a and xn+1=(xn−1+b)−1 for n≥0.
  • Prove that xn is strictly monotone decreasing.
  • Prove that the limit exists and find it.

For the induction step we'll notice before anything else that in general for any n∈ℕ1 we have that xn+1=(xn−1+b)−1=11xn+b=11+bxnxn=xn1+bxn moving on, let k∈ℕ1 we'll prove that xk≥xk+1, xk+1=xk1+bxk=xk−11+bxk−11+b(xk−11+bxk−1)=xk−11+bxk−1(1+bxk−1+bxk−11+bxk−1)=xk−11+2bxk−1 But then because of the fact that 1+2bxk>1+bxk then we know that xk+1=xk−11+2bxk−1<xk−11+bxk−1=xk

Finally as x0=a>a1+ab=x1 as ab∈ℝ+, then we know that xk>xk+1 for all k∈ℕ0

Next we can prove that all terms are positive because a,b>0 and all terms are derived from them using operations that maintain positivity so in the induction step it will work. Therefore it is lower bounded by 0 by MCT the limit exists.

Recall that limn→∞⁡xn=L=limn→∞⁡xn+1=limn→∞⁡11xn+b=11L+b=L1+Lb We see that this implies 1+Lb=1 Therefore since b∈ℝ+ we must have that L=0.


As an alternative to that, we can find a closed form for xk which allows us to compute the limit directly

Note that in the induction step something interesting occurred, syntactically we could have then replaced xk−1 with xk−21+bxk−2 then following the same simplification steps we would have obtained xk−21+3bxk−2, from this we make the conjecture that xj=a1+jba which we will now prove by showing that for any k∈ℕ1, and any j∈{0,…,k} we have xk=xk−j1+jbxk−j

For the base case of j=1 we see that xk=xk−11+(1)xk−1, now suppose it holds true for some j∈{1,…,k−1} and we'll show that it holds true for j+1, xk=xk−j1+jbxk−j=xk−j−11+bxk−j−11+jb(xk−j−11+bxk−j−1)=xk−j−11+bxk−j−11+(j+1)xk−j−11+bxk−j−1=xk−j−11+(j+1)bxk−j−1

Therefore by finite induction it holds true for all j∈{1,…k} specifically for k=j we have xk=a1+kba