9
$\begingroup$

How can we find the value of $$\sqrt{1+ \sqrt[3]{1+\sqrt[4]{1+ \sqrt[5]{1+ \cdots}}}}=?$$

My Approach:
Let $$f(n)=\sqrt[n]{1+ \sqrt[n+1]{1+\sqrt[n+2]{1+ \sqrt[n+3]{1+ \cdots}}}} \tag{1},$$ then $f(2)$ is our solution.

So, doing $n$th power in both sides of $(1)$, we get: $${ \{ f(n) \} }^n =1+f(n+1)$$ $$\implies { \{ f(n) \} }^n - f(n+1) = 1 \tag{2}$$ Now how can I solve $(2)$ ? Any help please…

$\endgroup$
7
  • 1
    $\begingroup$ The value is, numerically, around $1.5176001678777\dots$. The inverse symbolic calculator gives no closed form. $\endgroup$ Commented Mar 9, 2018 at 7:08
  • $\begingroup$ Is this' a well known constant? $\endgroup$ Commented Mar 9, 2018 at 7:14
  • 1
    $\begingroup$ @TheSimpliFire Getting to the 9th root, the value gets above $1.51746$. Up to the 15th root I get $1.51760016787772$ and it doesn't seem to increase any more at least within the accuracy I took. Taking higher accuracy, the number of correct digits seems to grow linearly with however many roots we take. $\endgroup$ Commented Mar 9, 2018 at 8:01
  • 1
    $\begingroup$ The first value in the comment above was supposed to be $1.5176$. $\endgroup$ Commented Mar 9, 2018 at 8:08
  • 1
    $\begingroup$ @user9198116 See this similar question. $\endgroup$ Commented Mar 9, 2018 at 12:39

3 Answers 3

2
$\begingroup$

Estimation of upper bound.

L signs the value of the expression, then we can write:

\begin{align}L^2=1+\left(1+(1+\cdots+(1+(1+s)^{{1/n}})^{{1/{n-1}}}\cdots)^{1/4}\right)^{1/3}\end{align}

where

\begin{align}s=\sqrt[n+1]{1+\sqrt[n+2]{1+ \sqrt[n+3]{1+ \cdots}}} \tag{1}\end{align}

Accordance with Bernoulli$^,$s inequality if $0\le{r}\le1$ and $x\ge-1$ then $(1+x)^r\le(1+xr)$

In our case $r=\frac{1}{k}, k=3,4, ....n $ and $s\gt1 $.

First apply to $(1+s)^{1/n}$ we have that $\le1+\frac{s}{n}$ then outward apply to all power factor we get the following:

\begin{align}L^2\le1+1+\left(1+(1+\cdots+(1+(1+\frac{s}{n}))\frac{1}{n-1}\cdots)\frac{1}{4}\right)\frac{1}{3}\end{align}

Perform the multiplications:

\begin{align}L^2\le2 +2(\frac{1}{3!} +\frac{1}{4!}+......\frac{1}{(n-1)!}+\frac{s}{n!})\end{align}

Namely

\begin{align}L^2\le2 +2\sum_{k=3}^n\frac{1}{k!}\end{align}

We could apply to $s$ the above procedure then we have:

\begin{align}L^2\le2 +2\sum_{k=0}^{\infty}\frac{1}{k!}-5\end{align}

\begin{align}L\le \sqrt{2e-3}=1,56094\end{align}

$\endgroup$
3
  • $\begingroup$ The question was "Now how can I solve (2)?". But if you're lucky, nobody will notice, and downvote. $\endgroup$ Commented Mar 11, 2018 at 19:06
  • 1
    $\begingroup$ This answer is good because it proves a good upper bound, while truncating the roots provides only a lower bound. $\endgroup$ Commented Apr 17, 2018 at 20:16
  • 2
    $\begingroup$ However, I need to point out that the first three terms of Michael's series aleady give a better upper bound: $$1+\frac{1}{2}+\frac{1}{24}=1.54167$$ $\endgroup$ Commented Apr 17, 2018 at 20:22
1
$\begingroup$

Comment, not an answer

We have $$\begin{align}f(2)=\sqrt{1+ \sqrt[3]{1+\sqrt[4]{1+ \sqrt[5]{1+ \cdots}}}}=\left(1+\left(1+(1+\cdots)^{1/4}\right)^{1/3}\right)^{1/2}\end{align}$$ From the Binomial Theorem, $$\begin{align}(1+x)^{1/n}&=1+\frac1nx-\frac{n-1}{n\cdot2n}x^2+\frac{(n-1)(2n-1)}{n\cdot2n\cdot3n}x^3-\cdots\\&=1+\sum_{m=1}^\infty \left(x^m\prod_{k=0}^m\frac{(-1)^{k+1}(kn-1)}{(k+1)n}\right)\end{align}$$ so $$f(2)=1+\sum_{m=1}^\infty \left(\left(1+\sum_{m=1}^\infty \left(\left(\cdots\right)^m\prod_{k=0}^m\frac{(-1)^{k+1}(3k-1)}{3(k+1)}\right)\right)^m\prod_{k=0}^m\frac{(-1)^{k+1}(2k-1)}{2(k+1)}\right)$$ which is essentially an infinite nest of iterations of simple summations and products.

There may be techniques to evaluate this, but none of which I am aware of.

$\endgroup$
1
$\begingroup$

Following on from TheSimplifier, you can try to evaluate $$\left(1+x\left(1+x\left(\cdots\right)^{1/4}\right)^{1/3}\right)^{1/2}$$ at the value $x=1$.

It has the advantage of a finite calculation for each coefficient of $x^n$. But I think the first few terms are

$$1+\frac12x+\frac1{24}x^2-\frac5{144}x^3+\cdots$$

$\endgroup$
1
  • 1
    $\begingroup$ A good idea! The first few terms (Mathematica) look like this: $$1+\frac{x}{2}+\frac{x^2}{24}-\frac{5 x^3}{144}+\frac{637 x^4}{51840}+\frac{143 x^5}{777600}-\frac{9958073 x^6}{2612736000}+\cdots$$ which gives an upper bound of $$L<\frac{590749}{388800}=1.51942 \ldots$$ $\endgroup$ Commented Apr 17, 2018 at 20:26

You must log in to answer this question.

Start asking to get answers

Find the answer to your question by asking.

Ask question

Explore related questions

See similar questions with these tags.