📝 题目
例 16 设数列 ${x}_{n}$ 由如下递推公式定义:
$$ {x}_{0} = 1,\;{x}_{n + 1} = \frac{1}{1 + {x}_{n}}\;\left( {n = 0,1,2,\cdots }\right) . $$
求证: $\displaystyle{\mathop{\lim }\limits_{{n \rightarrow \infty }}{x}_{n} = \frac{\sqrt{5} - 1}{2}}$ .
💡 答案与解析
证法 1 用数学归纳法容易证明 $\frac{1}{2} \leq {x}_{n} \leq 1\left( {n = 0,1,2,\cdots }\right)$ . 记 $x = \frac{\sqrt{5} - 1}{2}$ . 显然有 $x = \frac{1}{1 + x},x > \frac{1}{2}$ . 因此
$$ \left| {{x}_{n + 1} - x}\right| = \left| {\frac{1}{1 + {x}_{n}} - \frac{1}{1 + x}}\right| = \frac{\left| {x}_{n} - x\right| }{\left( {1 + {x}_{n}}\right) \left( {1 + x}\right) } \leq \frac{4}{9}\left| {{x}_{n} - x}\right| $$
$$ \Rightarrow 0 \leq \left| {{x}_{n} - x}\right| \leq \frac{4}{9}\left| {{x}_{n - 1} - x}\right| \leq \cdots \leq {\left( \frac{4}{9}\right) }^{n}\left| {{x}_{0} - x}\right| $$
$$ \text{ 夹挤准则 }\mathop{\lim }\limits_{{n \rightarrow \infty }}{x}_{n} = x = \frac{\sqrt{5} - 1}{2}\text{ . } $$
评注 值得注意的是,在本例中,数列 ${x}_{n}$ 不是单调的. 请看如下的数值表:
\begin{center} \includegraphics[max width=0.5\textwidth]{images/004.jpg} \end{center} \hspace*{3em}
证法 2 分别考虑 ${x}_{2n}$ 和 ${x}_{{2n} + 1}$ . 记 $g\left( x\right) = \frac{1 + x}{2 + x}$ ,则有
$$ {x}_{2n} = \frac{1}{1 + {x}_{{2n} - 1}} = \frac{1 + {x}_{{2n} - 2}}{2 + {x}_{{2n} - 2}} = g\left( {x}_{{2n} - 2}\right) \;\left( {n = 1,2,\cdots }\right) ; $$
$$ {x}_{{2n} + 1} = \frac{1}{1 + {x}_{2n}} = \frac{1 + {x}_{{2n} - 1}}{2 + {x}_{{2n} - 1}} = g\left( {x}_{{2n} - 1}\right) \;\left( {n = 1,2,\cdots }\right) . $$
因为 $\forall a,b \in \mathbf{R},\frac{1 + b}{2 + b} - \frac{1 + a}{2 + a} = \frac{b - a}{\left( {2 + b}\right) \left( {2 + a}\right) }$ ,所以用数学归纳法容易证明:
$$ 0 < {x}_{2} < {x}_{0} \Rightarrow {x}_{2n} \downarrow \text{ 且 }{x}_{2n} > 0; $$
$$ {x}_{3} > {x}_{1} > 0 \Rightarrow {x}_{{2n} + 1} \uparrow \text{ 且 }{x}_{{2n} + 1} < 1. $$
由此可见,极限 $\displaystyle{\mathop{\lim }\limits_{{n \rightarrow \infty }}{x}_{2n}}$ 和 $\displaystyle{\mathop{\lim }\limits_{{n \rightarrow \infty }}{x}_{{2n} + 1}}$ 都存在,并且极限值都是方程 $x =$ $g\left( x\right)$ 即 $x = \frac{1 + x}{2 + x}$ 的正根,也就是
$$ x = \frac{\sqrt{5} - 1}{2} \Rightarrow \mathop{\lim }\limits_{{n \rightarrow \infty }}{x}_{n} = \frac{\sqrt{5} - 1}{2}. $$
评注 值得注意的是,虽然序列 ${x}_{n}$ 没有单调性,但是 ${x}_{2n}$ 和 ${x}_{{2n} + 1}$ 却都有单调性.