1985 AHSME Problems/Problem 27

Problem

Consider a sequence $x_1,x_2,x_3,\dotsc$ defined by: $\begin{align*}&x_1 = \sqrt[3]{3}, \\ &x_2 = \left(\sqrt[3]{3}\right)^{\sqrt[3]{3}},\end{align*}$ and in general $x_n = \left(x_{n-1}\right)^{\sqrt[3]{3}} \text{ for } n > 1.$

What is the smallest value of $n$ for which $x_n$ is an integer?

$\mathrm{(A)\ } 2 \qquad \mathrm{(B) \ }3 \qquad \mathrm{(C) \ } 4 \qquad \mathrm{(D) \ } 9 \qquad \mathrm{(E) \ }27$

Solution

Firstly, we will show by induction that $x_n = \left(\sqrt[3]{3}\right)^{\left(\left(\sqrt[3]{3}\right)^{n-1}\right)}.$ For the base case, we indeed have $\begin{align*}x_1 &= \sqrt[3]{3} \\ &= \left(\sqrt[3]{3}\right)^1 \\ &= \left(\sqrt[3]{3}\right)^{\left(\left(\sqrt[3]{3}\right)^0\right)},\end{align*}$ and for the inductive step, if our claim is true for $x_n$ , then $\begin{align*}x_{n+1} &= \left(x_n\right)^{\sqrt[3]{3}} \\ &= \left(\left(\sqrt[3]{3}\right)^{\left(\left(\sqrt[3]{3}\right)^{n-1}\right)}\right)^{\sqrt[3]{3}} \\ &= \left(\sqrt[3]{3}\right)^{\left(\left(\sqrt[3]{3}\right)^{n-1}\cdot\sqrt[3]{3}\right)} \\ &= \left(\sqrt[3]{3}\right)^{\left(\left(\sqrt[3]{3}\right)^n\right)},\end{align*}$ which completes the proof.

We now rewrite our formula for $x_n$ as follows: $\begin{align*}x_n &= \left(\sqrt[3]{3}\right)^{\left(\left(\sqrt[3]{3}\right)^{n-1}\right)} \\ &= \left(\sqrt[3]{3}\right)^{\left(3^{\frac{n-1}{3}}\right)} \\ &=3^{\left(\frac{1}{3} \cdot 3^{\frac{n-1}{3}}\right)} \\ &= 3^{\left(3^{\left(\frac{n-1}{3}-1\right)}\right)} \\ &= 3^{\left(3^{\left(\frac{n-4}{3}\right)}\right)},\end{align*}$ and as $3$ is not a perfect power, we deduce that $x_n$ is an integer if and only if the exponent, $3^{\left(\frac{n-4}{3}\right)}$ , is itself an integer. By precisely the same argument, this reduces to $\frac{n-4}{3}$ being an integer, so the smallest possible (positive) value of $n$ is $\boxed{\text{(C)} \ 4}$ .

1985 AHSME (Problems • Answer Key • Resources)
Preceded by Problem 26	Followed by Problem 28
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1985 AHSME Problems/Problem 27

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