Given that the decay rate of the uranium is given to be 57%, this means that on the second day only 43% of the Uranium-233 will be left. The equation therefore, that will allow us to answer the question is that, A(t) = A(0)(1 - r)^n where A(t) is the amount after n days, A(0) is the original amount, r is the decimal equivalent of the rate and n is the number of days. Substituting the known values, A(t) = (3,820 pounds)*(1-0.57)^15 A(t) = 0.0121 pounds This is unfortunately not found in the choices.
(a) Suppose is a solution for this recurrence, with . Then
So we expect a general solution of the form
With , we get four equations in four unknowns:
So the particular solution to the recurrence is
(b) Let be the generating function for . Multiply both sides of the recurrence by and sum over all .
From here you would write each term as a power series (easy enough, since they're all geometric or derived from a geometric series), combine the series into one, and the solution to the recurrence will be the coefficient of , ideally matching the solution found in part (a).