Maths Olympiad Prep

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Algebra Difficulty 5.5 AIME, harder Prove it Bulgaria

Problem:

Consider the inequality x25x+6x+a|x^{2}-5x+6| \leq x+a, where aa is a real parameter.

a) Solve the inequality for a=0a=0.

b) Find the values of aa for which the inequality has exactly three integer solutions.

Solution

Solution:

a) We consider two cases. If x(,2][3,)x \in (-\infty, 2] \cup [3, \infty), then the inequality becomes x26x+60x^{2}-6x+6 \leq 0, whence x[33,3+3]x \in [3-\sqrt{3}, 3+\sqrt{3}]. Therefore the solutions of the inequality are x[33,2][3,3+3]x \in [3-\sqrt{3}, 2] \cup [3, 3+\sqrt{3}].

If x(2,3)x \in (2,3), then the inequality becomes x24x+60x^{2}-4x+6 \geq 0, which is satisfied for every x(2,3)x \in (2,3). Thus x[33,3+3]x \in [3-\sqrt{3}, 3+\sqrt{3}].

b) If the inequality x25x+6x+a|x^{2}-5x+6| \leq x+a has an integral solution xx then x(,2][3,)x \in (-\infty, 2] \cup [3, \infty) and therefore

x26x+6a0 x^{2}-6x+6-a \leq 0

This inequality has a solution if and only if a3a \geq -3 and in this case we have that x[3a+3,3+a+3]x \in [3-\sqrt{a+3}, 3+\sqrt{a+3}]. This interval contains the number 33 and is symmetric with respect to 33. Therefore it contains exactly three integers if and only if 1a+3<21 \leq \sqrt{a+3} < 2, i.e. a[2,1)a \in [-2,1).

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