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Philippine Mathematical Olympiad

Geometry Difficulty 4.2 AIME Find the answer Philippines

Problem:
How many times does the graph of y=±x−1x+1y= \pm \sqrt{\frac{x-1}{x+1}} cross the xx-axis, the yy-axis or the line y=xy=x?

A number or a short expression. Fractions can be typed as 3/2, and spacing doesn't matter.

Solution

Solution:
Twice, at (1,0)(1,0) and in the third quadrant.

First x≥1x \geq 1 or x<−1x<-1. Solving xx in terms of yy, we get x=1+y21−y2x=\frac{1+y^{2}}{1-y^{2}}. The graph of this equation has asymptotes y=1y=1 and y=−1y=-1. For x≥1x \geq 1 in this graph, −1<y<1-1<y<1 and this portion of the graph does not intersect by y=xy=x. For x<−1x<-1, we have y>1y>1 or y<−1y<-1 with x=−1x=-1 as asymptote. y=xy=x intersects this portion of the graph once in the third quadrant.

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Source: MathNet, licensed CC-BY-4.0. Statement reproduced verbatim; metadata (topic, difficulty) added by this project.