# What is the form of the following recursion relation?

1. Dec 21, 2012

### bjnartowt

what is the "form" of the following recursion relation?

Hi all, I have a recursion relation I am trying to solve:

${X_n} = \frac{1}{{1 - {\alpha _0} \cdot {X_{n - 1}}}} \to {X_n} = ?$

What is the "mathematical form" of this recursion-relation? E.g., I know what a homogeneous, linear recursion-relation with constant coefficients looks like, and how to solve it; same with an inhomogeneous recursion relation. But what about this one? (alpha0 = a constant). All I know is that it looks like the closed-form solution to the infinite geometric sum, and I don't know where to go from there. If someone tells me what the mathematical form of this is, I can Google example-solutions that I can work off of, and/or see what a textbook says.

bjn

2. Dec 22, 2012

### JJacquelin

Re: what is the "form" of the following recursion relation?

Hi !

In attachment, you can see the method (not the whole calculus) which leads to the closed form.

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• ###### Continuous Fraction.JPG
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3. Dec 22, 2012

### bjnartowt

Re: what is the "form" of the following recursion relation?

Thanks, JJaquelin. As it turns out, I found a book on difference-equations, in which there is a topic on continued fractions, which is a less mainstream topic than differential equations, so I am reading that now.

FYI: the book is Elaydi Saber's book: "An Introduction to Difference Equations".

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