Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Continued Radicals, Jamie Johnson

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

If a1, a2, . . . , an are nonnegative real numbers and fj(x) = paj + x, then f1o f2o· · · fn(0) is a nested radical with terms a1, . . . , an. If it exists, the limit as n ! 1 of such an expression is a continued radical. We consider the set of real numbers S(M) representable as an infinite nested radical whose terms a1, a2, . . . are all from a finite set M. We give conditions on the set M for S(M) to be (a) an interval, and (b) homeomorphic to the …