The sequence un is defined by u1 = 2 and un+1 = (1)/(2)(un + (2)/(un)) for n >= 1. 1. Show that un > sqrt(2) for all n >= 1. 2. Show that un+1 < un for all n >= 1. 3. Hence explain why un converges, and find n infinity un. 4. Find the sum sumn=1^infinity (un - un+1).
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Step-by-step solution
4 stepsShow that for all .
We use the AM-GM inequality, which states that for non-negative numbers and , .
Let and .
Since , and the recurrence relation involves division by , all must be positive.
Thus, and .
Applying AM-GM to and :The equality holds if and only if , which means , so .
However, , which is not equal to .
If , then , so the inequality is strict: .
Since , it follows that , , and so on.
Therefore, for all .Show that for all .
To show that , we need to show that .
From Step 1, we established that for all .
This implies , so .
Also, since , it means is positive, so .
Therefore, .
This shows that , which means for all .
The sequence is strictly decreasing.Hence explain why converges, and find .
From Step 1, the sequence is bounded below by (i.e., for all ).
From Step 2, the sequence is monotonically decreasing (i.e., for all ).
A fundamental theorem in real analysis states that any sequence that is both monotonic and bounded converges. Therefore, converges.To find the limit, let .
If converges to , then also converges to .
Taking the limit of the recurrence relation:Multiply by 2:
Subtract from both sides:
Multiply by :
Since we established in Step 1 that for all , the limit must be positive.
Therefore, the limit is .Find the sum .
This is a telescoping series. Let be the -th partial sum:
All intermediate terms cancel out, leaving:
The sum of the infinite series is the limit of the partial sums as :
We know .
From Step 3, we found that .
Substituting these values:The sum is .
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