Looking for a recursion relation

  • Context:
  • Thread starter Thread starter topsquark
  • Start date Start date
  • Tags Tags
    Recursion Relation
Join the discussion
Ask a follow-up here, or get your own question answered by working scientists, mathematicians and engineers — people, not an autocomplete.
Real named experts · corrections over time · the nuance an AI answer skips
2 replies · 1K views
Messages
2,020
Reaction score
843
I don't know how to do a search for information on a specific equation. It's [math]f(n + 1) = 2 - \dfrac{d(n)}{f(n)}[/math], where d(n) is more or less arbitrary. It came up in some work I've been doing and I can't seem to get anywhere with it. Being non-linear it may not even have a closed form solution. There are two other ways to look at it. It's a non-linear difference equation: [math]f \Delta f + f(f - 2) = d[/math] and it can also be considered as a continued fraction. (I'm going to be looking up that idea tonight.)

Any thoughts?

-Dan
 
Mathematics news on Phys.org
Yes, thank you. I have found (but not proven) that this equation cannot be solved in general. I haven't even found a general way to approach it. It is a very annoying little equation!

-Dan

Addendum: Well, I should say "does not have closed form solutions in general." We can always do it numerically.