Re: Trying to get closed form solution to simple recurrence.
- To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
- Subject: [mg100083] Re: [mg100017] Trying to get closed form solution to simple recurrence.
- From: Daniel Lichtblau <danl at wolfram.com>
- Date: Fri, 22 May 2009 23:40:09 -0400 (EDT)
- References: <200905220542.BAA18819@smc.vnet.net>
negatron wrote:
> Product[(100 - n)/100, {n, 1, x}]
>
> ((100!/(100 - (x + 1))!)*(1/100)^(x + 1))
>
> So the two above are equivalent (perhaps the second can do with less
> brackets).
>
> What I'm trying to figure out is how to get Mathematica to solve such
> a problem. That is, input the first expression and get the second.
>
> I'm aware of the RSolve function and I've used it in the past, but I
> can't seem to figure out a way how to express this properly, or more
> likely it doesn't look like such a problem can be solved by this
> particular function.
>
> Is such a thing solvable by any function in Mathematica?
It seems RSolve does not handle this directly. A workaround is to take
logs, use RSolve on that, and exponentiate.
rsol = RSolve[{
fl[n]==Log[100-n]-Log[100]+fl[n-1], fl[1]==Log[99/100]}, fl[n], n];
In[30]:= InputForm[f[n] = Exp[fl[n]/.First[rsol]]]
Out[30]//InputForm= (-1/100)^(1 + n)*Pochhammer[-100, 1 + n]
In[31]:= InputForm[fnew = FunctionExpand[f[n],
Assumptions->Element[n,Integers]]]
Out[31]//InputForm=
(9881297415446727147594496649775206852319571477668037853762810667968023095834\
839075329261976769165978884198811117*
(-1)^(2*n)*2^(95 - 2*n)*25^(11 - n))/Gamma[100 - n]
Notice that we have an factor of (-1)^(2*n) which "obviously" is one. I
do not use simplification at this point because it is easier to see this
is equivalent to the desired form, at least once you see that form
evaluated.
In[40]:= InputForm[gg = ((100!/(100 - (n + 1))!)*(1/100)^(n + 1))]
Out[40]//InputForm=
(9881297415446727147594496649775206852319571477668037853762810667968023095834\
839075329261976769165978884198811117*2^(95 - 2*n)*25^(11 - n))/(99 - n)!
In[41]:= FullSimplify[fnew-gg, Assumptions->Element[n,Integers]]
Out[41]= 0
Notice that Product already will handle the original input.
In[4]:= InputForm[Product[(100 - j)/100, {j,1,n}]]
Out[4]//InputForm= (-1/100)^n*Pochhammer[-99, n]
If you use FunctionExpand it will give the form to which gg evaluates,
along with the (unfortunate, needless) factor of (-1)^(2*n). You can get
rid of it by using Simplify[...,Assumptions->Element[n,Integers]].
Daniel Lichtblau
Wolfram Research
- References:
- Trying to get closed form solution to simple recurrence.
- From: negatron <lokieffect@gmail.com>
- Trying to get closed form solution to simple recurrence.