Maths Olympiad Prep

Library / /1 of 104

Algebra Difficulty 4.5 AIME Prove it Bulgaria

Problem:
Solve the inequality
loga(x2x2)>loga(3+2xx2) \log_{a}\left(x^{2}-x-2\right)>\log_{a}\left(3+2x-x^{2}\right)
if it is known that x=a+1x=a+1 is a solution.

Solution

Solution:
The inequality is defined for x2x2>0x^{2}-x-2>0 and 3+2xx2>03+2x-x^{2}>0, whence x(2,3)x \in (2,3).

Since x=a+1x=a+1 is a solution, we have a(1,2)a \in (1,2).

Then the inequality is equivalent to
x2x2>3+2xx2(x+1)(2x5)>0 x^{2}-x-2 > 3+2x-x^{2} \Longleftrightarrow (x+1)(2x-5)>0
and therefore x(52,3)x \in \left(\frac{5}{2}, 3\right).

Want a route through all this instead of an archive? The track puts 2,000 problems in a working order, from AMC 10 level to the IMO shortlist.

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