Archive for April 1st, 2008

Sequences of rationals

If I start giving you some numbers like:

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, \ldots

or

1, \frac{1}{2},\frac{1}{4},\ldots

That’s a sequence. You can take a sequence and make the sequence of averages. The average of 1 is 1. The average of 1 and 2 is \frac{3}{2}. The average of 1, 2 and 3 is 2. and so on. So the sequence of averages for

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, \ldots

is

1, \frac{3}{2}, 2, \frac{5}{2}, 3\ldots,

and the sequence of averages for

1, \frac{1}{2},\frac{1}{4},\ldots

is

1, \frac{3}{4}, \frac{7}{12},\ldots.

Now for some questions (the answers are known)

1) Can you come up with a sequence of rational numbers such that the sequence of averages hits every rational number?

2) Can you come up with a sequence of positive rationals such that the sequence of averages hits every positive rational number?

3) Can you come up with a sequence of positive rationals such that the sequence of averages hits every positive rational exactly once?

4) How about a sequence of unique positive rationals (no repeats) whose sequence of averages hits every positive rational exactly once?

Finally, one that I don’t know that answer to:

5) Can you come up with a sequence of positive rationals that itself hits every rational exactly once and whose sequence of averages also hits every positive rational exactly once?

Please let me know if you get number (5). Also let me know if you are stuck on any of them.

Add comment April 1, 2008


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Math is fun and it's for everybody. This blog is about math in real time. None of the stuff on here is "serious math." It's just for fun (as math should be). As far as I know it is all new, so please join in!

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