Аннотация:Let F_n(x) be the minimum value of
t[1]+t[2]/(t[1]+1)+...+t[n]/(t[n-1]+1).
under the constraint t[n]=x.
Define F(x)=inf F_n(x) over n=1,2,....
We show that F(x)=eu-A+e d(u+b)/(2u)+O(1/u^2),
where u=ln x; A and b are some numerical constants, and d(.) denotes the squared distance from the given real number to the nearest integer.
A general theorem about the asymptotics of a function whose graph is the lower envelope of a sequence curves given by parametric equations with certain asymptotic dependence of the sequence's index is given.