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Algebra Difficulty 4.6 AIME Find the answer Philippines

Problem:
Give three real roots of x+34x1+x+86x1=1\sqrt{x+3-4 \sqrt{x-1}}+\sqrt{x+8-6 \sqrt{x-1}}=1.

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

Solution

Solution:
Any three numbers in [5,10][5,10].

x+34x1+x+86x1=1\sqrt{x+3-4 \sqrt{x-1}}+\sqrt{x+8-6 \sqrt{x-1}}=1

can be written

(x1)4x1+4+(x1)6x1+9=(x12)2+(x13)2=1\sqrt{(x-1)-4 \sqrt{x-1}+4}+\sqrt{(x-1)-6 \sqrt{x-1}+9}=\sqrt{(\sqrt{x-1}-2)^{2}}+\sqrt{(\sqrt{x-1}-3)^{2}}=1

hence x12+x13=1|\sqrt{x-1}-2|+|\sqrt{x-1}-3|=1.

There are four cases.

(I) x120\sqrt{x-1}-2 \geq 0 and x130\sqrt{x-1}-3 \geq 0 which implies x10x=10x \geq 10 \Rightarrow x=10.

(II) x120\sqrt{x-1}-2 \leq 0 and x130\sqrt{x-1}-3 \leq 0 which implies x5x=5x \leq 5 \Rightarrow x=5.

(III) x120\sqrt{x-1}-2 \geq 0 and x130\sqrt{x-1}-3 \leq 0 implies 5x105 \leq x \leq 10.

(IV) x120\sqrt{x-1}-2 \leq 0 and x130\sqrt{x-1}-3 \geq 0, which is impossible.

Thus, any x[5,10]x \in[5,10] solves the equation.

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