Uniqueness of Quickly Growing Series With Rational Sums
As Sylvester himself observed, Sylvester's sequence seems to be unique in having such quickly growing values, while simultaneously having a series of reciprocals that converges to a rational number.
To make this more precise, it follows from results of Badea (1993) that, if a sequence of integers grows quickly enough that
and if the series
converges to a rational number A, then, for all n after some point, this sequence must be defined by the same recurrence
that can be used to define Sylvester's sequence.
Erdős (1980) conjectured that, in results of this type, the inequality bounding the growth of the sequence could be replaced by a weaker condition,
Badea (1995) surveys progress related to this conjecture; see also Brown (1979).
Read more about this topic: Sylvester's Sequence
Famous quotes containing the words uniqueness of, uniqueness, quickly, growing, series, rational and/or sums:
“Until now when we have started to talk about the uniqueness of America we have almost always ended by comparing ourselves to Europe. Toward her we have felt all the attraction and repulsions of Oedipus.”
—Daniel J. Boorstin (b. 1914)
“Somehow we have been taught to believe that the experiences of girls and women are not important in the study and understanding of human behavior. If we know men, then we know all of humankind. These prevalent cultural attitudes totally deny the uniqueness of the female experience, limiting the development of girls and women and depriving a needy world of the gifts, talents, and resources our daughters have to offer.”
—Jeanne Elium (20th century)
“Suspicion is not less an enemy to virtue than to happiness; he that is already corrupt is naturally suspicious, and he that becomes suspicious will quickly be corrupt.”
—Joseph Addison (16721719)
“Rearing three children is like growing a cactus, a gardenia, and a tubful of impatiens. Each needs varying amounts of water, sunlight and pruning. Were I to be absolutely fair, I would have to treat each child as if he or she were absolutely identical to the other siblings, and there would be no profit for anyone in that.”
—Phyllis Theroux, U.S. journalist. On Being Fair, Night Lights: Bedtime Stories for Parents in the Dark, Penguin (1987)
“The professional celebrity, male and female, is the crowning result of the star system of a society that makes a fetish of competition. In America, this system is carried to the point where a man who can knock a small white ball into a series of holes in the ground with more efficiency than anyone else thereby gains social access to the President of the United States.”
—C. Wright Mills (19161962)
“...if we would be and do all that as a rational being we should desire, we must resolve to govern ourselves; we must seek diversity of interests; dread to be without an object and without mental occupation; and try to balance work for the body and work for the mind.”
—Ellen Henrietta Swallow Richards (18421911)
“If God lived on earth, people would break his windows.”
—Jewish proverb, quoted in Claud Cockburn, Cockburn Sums Up, epigraph (1981)