Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge / 2018 / ii / Paper 4 / 2F / Solution

LetAssume for a contradiction that $S=a/b$ is rational. For every $N\ge b$, both $N!S$ andare integers, because the $m_n$ are integers. Their positive differencemust therefore be a positive integer.

On the other hand, concavity of $x^{\alpha }$ for $0\le \alpha <1$ gives $(N+k{)}^{\alpha }\le N^{\alpha }+k^{\alpha }\le N^{\alpha }+k$. Since $(N+1)\cdots (N+k)\ge (N+1{)}^k$,Eventually $0<R_N<1$, contradicting its integrality. Hence

The integrality assumption is essential. For example, take $\alpha =0$, $A=2$, andThen $1<m_n<2$, but the exponential series givesThus the result does not remain true for arbitrary real $m_n$.