Problem:
For every real number , we denote by the "integer part of ", defined as the largest integer . Thus for example we have that , , . Determine how many positive real solutions the equation has.
Problem:
For every real number , we denote by the "integer part of ", defined as the largest integer . Thus for example we have that , , . Determine how many positive real solutions the equation has.
Solution:
The answer is 4. The equation can be written in the form , which is equivalent to . Since , we have that , from which . Since for every the integer part is an integer , only the possibilities remain. Substituting these values into the relation already found , we obtain that the corresponding values of are, respectively, , , , , . The solution must however be discarded, since the text required positive. One easily verifies instead that the other four values of actually solve the proposed equation, which therefore has four positive real solutions.