USAMO
1990


Problem - 3536
A sequence of functions $\, \{f_n(x) \} \,$ is defined recursively as follows: \begin{align*}f_1(x) &= \sqrt{x^2 + 48}, \quad \mbox{and} \\ f_{n+1}(x) &= \sqrt{x^2 + 6f_n(x)} \quad \mbox{for } n \geq 1.\end{align*}(Recall that $\sqrt{\makebox[5mm]{}}$ is understood to represent the positive square root.) For each positive integer $n$, find all real solutions of the equation $\, f_n(x) = 2x \,$.

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