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Consider a complete binary tree of height $n$, where each edge is one Ohm resistor. Suppose all the leaves of the tree are tied together. Approximately how much is the effective resistance from the root to this bunch of leaves for very large $n$?

  1. Exponential in $n$.
  2. Cubic in $n$.
  3. Linear in $n$.
  4. Logarithmic in $n$.
  5. Of the order square root of $n$.
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Sum of resistors when in series $r_{serial} = r_{1}+r_{2}$

Sum of resistors when in parallel, $\dfrac{1}{r_{parallel}}= \dfrac{1}{r1} + \dfrac{1}{r2}$
                                             
$\implies r_{parallel} = \dfrac{r_{1}\cdot r_{2}}{r_{1}+r_{2}}$

Every node siblings are in parallel and the sum of each level are in series and all node of the last level are tied so all are in series.

So, total sum of resistor $=$ root $ + $ total of level $2 \ + $ total of level $3 + \ldots + $ total of level $n-1 +$ total of level $n$ (in series)
$\begin{array}{cc}\textbf{ Level}&\textbf{Number of nodes}\\ \hline
1&1 (2^0)\\
2&2 (2^1)\\
3      &              4  (2^2)\\4                     &            8 (2^3)\\.\\.\\n-1                    &          2^{n-2}\\n                         &        2^{n-1}\\
\end{array}$

So, total sum of resistor $=$ root $+$ total of level $2 \ +$ total of level $3 + \dots.+$ total of level $n-1 + \ $ total of level $n$ (series)
$\qquad= 1 + \frac{r}{2} + \frac{r}{4} + \frac{r}{8} + \frac{r}{16} + \dots + \frac{r}{2^{n-2}} + (\underbrace{r + r + r + r + \dots +r}_{2^{n-1}  \ times}) $ (here $r = 1)$
$\qquad = 1 + \left\{ \frac{1}{2} + \frac{1}{4} + \frac{1}{8} + \dots + \frac{1}{2^{n-2}}\right\}(\text{decreasing GP}) + {(\underbrace{1+1+1+\ldots+1}_{ 2^{n-1}  \ times})} $

$\qquad \approx (2^n)  \ \text{approx}$

Option $(A)$ is the correct choice.
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4 Comments

@Satbir 

@srestha please check above comment..

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TIFR2012-16

@Verma Ashish  @Arjun sir

Which answer is correct as TIFR is saying none of the option matches. But the best answer is concluding $'A'$ as the answer.

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@Kushagra गुप्ता i had already commented about how i interpreted this question..

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