optimality of 2 as a coefficient in a continued fraction theorem I'm giving some lectures on continued fractions to high school and college students, and I discussed the standard theorem that, for a real number $\alpha$ and integers $p$ and $q$ with $q \not= 0$, if $|\alpha-p/q| < 1/(2q^2)$ then $p/q$ is a convergent in the continued fraction expansion of $\alpha$. Someone in the audience asked if 2 is optimal: is there a positive number $c < 2$ such that, for every $\alpha$ (well, of course the case of real interest is irrational $\alpha$), when $|\alpha - p/q| < 1/(cq^2)$ it is guaranteed that $p/q$ is a convergent to the continued fraction expansion of $\alpha$?
Please note this is not answered by the theorem of Hurwitz, which says that an irrational $\alpha$ has $|\alpha - p_k/q_k| < 1/(\sqrt{5}q_k^2)$ for infinitely many convergents $p_k/q_k$, and that $\sqrt{5}$ is optimal: all $\alpha$ whose cont. frac. expansion ends with an infinite string of repeating 1's fail to satisfy such a property if $\sqrt{5}$ is replaced by any larger number. For the question the student at my lecture is asking, an optimal parameter is at most 2, not at least 2.

2 is optimal. Let $\alpha=[a,2,\beta]$, where $\beta$ is a (large) irrational, and let $p/q=[a,1]=(a+1)/1$. Then $p/q$ is not a convergent to $\alpha$, and $${p\over q}-\alpha={1\over2-{1\over \beta+1}}$$ which is ${1\over(2-\epsilon)q^2}$ since $q=1$. 
More complicated examples can be constructed.  I think this works, though I haven't done all the calculations. Let $\alpha=[a_0,a_1,\dots,a_n,m,2,\beta]$ with $m$ and $\beta$ large, let $p/q=[a_0,a_1,\dots,a_n,m,1]$. Then again $p/q$ is not a convergent to $\alpha$, while $$\left|{p\over q}-\alpha\right|={1\over(2-\epsilon)q^2}$$ for $m$ and $\beta$ sufficiently large. 
