Tuesday 28 May 2013

real analysis - Did I compute the limit of of the sequence $x_{n+1}=frac{x_n}{x_n+1}, x_o=1$ properly?



I need to study the limit behavior of $x_{n+1}=\frac{x_n}{x_n+1}, x_o=1$ and if the limit exists, compute the limit. I observed the first few terms and it seemed that the sequence was decreasing so I decided to show that the sequence was monotonic:



Need to show $x_{n+1}\leq x_n$ which is equivalent to showing $x_{n+1}-x_n\leq0$
$$x_{n+1}-x_n=\frac{x_n}{x_n+1}-x_n=\frac{x_n-x_n(x_n+1)}{x_n+1}=\frac{-(x_n)^2}{x_n+1}=-\frac{(x_n)^2}{x_n+1}\leq0$$ for all n if $x_n\geq0$ which can be proved by induction:

$$x_o=1\geq0$$$$x_1=1/2\geq0$$
$x_n=>x_{n+1}$
$$x_{n+1}=\frac{x_n}{x_n+1}>\frac{1}{x_n+1}>0$$ because $x_n>0$. (I don't know if that was the proper way to do the induction. Any confirmation?)



Since it was proved that $x_n\geq0$, $x_{n+1}-x_n=-\frac{(x_n)^2}{x_n+1}\leq0$, thus the sequence is monotone and decreasing. The sequence is also bounded:



Since the sequence is decreasing it is bounded above by 1, and because $x_n\geq0$ the sequence id bounded below by 0.



The boundedness and monotonicity of the sequence implies that a limit exists:




Let $\lim x_n=x$. Because $\lim x_n=\lim x_{n+1}$, $$x=\frac{x}{x+1}<=>x(x+1)=x<=>x+1=1=>x=0$$ So $0$ is the limit.



I'm not sure if there are problem in the work that I did and any help would be greatly appreciated.






I don't know if I should start a new question for this, so I've included it here anyways:
Since one was able to tell that the $\lim x_n=\lim \frac{1}{1+n}$ for the above sequence, should one try to do the same thing with the sequence $x_{n+1}= \frac{(x_n)^2}{x_n+1}$, $x_o=1$?


Answer



There’s a small error in your proof that $x_n\ge 0$ for all $n$: it’s not true that




$$\frac{x_n}{x_n+1}>\frac1{x_n+1}\;,$$



since in fact it turns out that $x_n\le 1$ for all $n$. However, given the induction hypothesis that $x_n\ge 0$, you certainly have\



$$x_{n+1}=\frac{x_n}{x_n+1}\ge 0\;,$$



which is all you need here. Otherwise it looks fine.



Note that if you calculate the first few values, you find that $x_1=\frac12$, $x_2=\frac13$, and $x_3=\frac14$, suggesting that in general $x_n=\frac1{n+1}$. An alternative approach would be to show by induction that this is true for all $n\ge 0$; this is not at all difficult.



No comments:

Post a Comment

real analysis - How to find $lim_{hrightarrow 0}frac{sin(ha)}{h}$

How to find $\lim_{h\rightarrow 0}\frac{\sin(ha)}{h}$ without lhopital rule? I know when I use lhopital I easy get $$ \lim_{h\rightarrow 0}...