<s>[INST] Evaluation of $\sqrt{\frac12+\sqrt{\frac14+\sqrt{\frac18+\cdots+\sqrt{\frac{1}{2^n}}}}}$ I was just playing around with a calculator, and came to the conclusion that:
$$\sqrt{\frac12+\sqrt{\frac14+\sqrt{\frac18+\cdots+\sqrt{\frac{1}{2^n}}}}} \approx 1.29$$
Now I'm curious. Is it possible to evaluate the exact value of the following?
 [/INST] It is easy to show, assuming the limit exists:
$$\sqrt{a+\sqrt{a+\sqrt{a+...}}}=\frac{1+\sqrt{1+4a}}{2}$$
It is also easy to see the following set of inequalities:
$$\sqrt{\frac{1}{2}+1} < \sqrt{\frac12+\sqrt{\frac14+\sqrt{\frac18+\cdots}}}<\sqrt{\frac{1}{2}+\sqrt{\frac{1}{2}+\sqrt{\frac{1}{2}+...}}}$$
$$\sqrt{\frac{1}{2}+\sqrt{\frac{1}{4}+1}} < \sqrt{\frac12+\sqrt{\frac14+\sqrt{\frac18+\cdots}}}<\sqrt{\frac{1}{2}+\sqrt{\frac{1}{4}+\sqrt{\frac{1}{4}+...}}}$$
$$\sqrt{\frac{1}{2}+\sqrt{\frac{1}{4}+\sqrt{\frac{1}{8}+1}}} < \sqrt{\frac12+\sqrt{\frac14+\sqrt{\frac18+\cdots}}}<\sqrt{\frac{1}{2}+\sqrt{\frac{1}{4}+\sqrt{\frac{1}{8}+\sqrt{\frac{1}{8}+...}}}}$$
And so on, getting better and better approximations.
Calculating the nested radicals:
$$\sqrt{\frac{1}{2}+\sqrt{\frac{1}{2}+\sqrt{\frac{1}{2}+...}}}=\frac{1+\sqrt{3}}{2}$$
$$\sqrt{\frac{1}{4}+\sqrt{\frac{1}{4}+\sqrt{\frac{1}{4}+...}}}=\frac{1+\sqrt{2}}{2}$$
$$\sqrt{\frac{1}{8}+\sqrt{\frac{1}{8}+\sqrt{\frac{1}{8}+...}}}=\frac{1+\sqrt{1.5}}{2}$$
We get following set of boundaries for the value we need:
$$R=\sqrt{\frac12+\sqrt{\frac14+\sqrt{\frac18+\cdots}}}=1.285737\dots$$
$$1.22474<R<1.36603$$
$$1.27202<R<1.30656$$
$$1.28251<R<1.29120$$
And so on. There is no closed form, but it's not hard to evaluate this nested radical with good precision.
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