ΘρϵηΠατπ

Max Length Sequence
Let M then largest value of n such that there is a finite sequence (a1,an)n where each term is bounded below by ϵ>0 and that i=1nai=M is given by n=Mϵ

First note that it's impossible for n>Mϵ, since if it were true we would know that: i=0nainϵ>Mϵϵ=M but we require this sum to be equal to M, therefore we know that nMϵ. So we have an upper bound on the value of n

Suppose that ϵ|M, therefore Mϵ, and thus by taking n=Mϵ then clearly n is at a maximum as needed, and by taking ai=ϵ we have i=1nai=nϵ=M Also note that Mϵ=Mϵ in this case.

Otherwise ϵM, therefore Mϵ, therefore we can certainly not pick n=Mϵ, and as stated earlier we cannot have n exceed this value, so the next largest value would the largest integer less than or equal to Mϵ which is defined as Mϵ

Recall that by the quotient remainder theorem there exists some q,r such that qϵ+r=M, and that specifically we have that q=Mϵ and r=MMϵϵ which yields the equation

Mϵϵ+(MMϵϵ)=(Mϵ1)ϵ+(MMϵϵ+ϵ) And note that since r0, well that is MMϵ0, we know that MMϵϵ+ϵ>ϵ and thus the sequence given by ai=ϵ for i[1(Mϵ1)] and aMϵ=(MMϵϵ+ϵ) is clearly bounded below by ϵ, and has sum equal to M, and has Mϵ terms, so the largest value of n is preciely that.

One way to understand what's going on here is to look at the following example where we have M=38 and ϵ=5, in this case since ϵM, then we know that we'd construct the sequence a1=a2=a3=a4=a5=a6=5 and then we have that a7=3+5=8, so here it maintains the smallest value until it would exceed it, and then combines the extra overflow into the previous term in the sequence which shortens the sequence and allows it to equal 38