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Geometry Difficulty 5.8 AIME, harder Prove it China

In the plane rectangular coordinate system, the graph of function y=x+1x+1y = \frac{x+1}{|x|+1} has three different points lying on line ll, and the sum of the abscissas of these three points is 00. Find the range of values of the slope of ll.

Solution

When x0x \ge 0, y=1y = 1; when x<0x < 0, y=x+11xy = \frac{x+1}{1-x} is strictly increasing about xx and less than 11.

Suppose line l:y=kx+bl: y = kx + b, and then the known conditions are equivalent to the fact that equation
kx+b=x+1x+1(1) kx + b = \frac{x+1}{|x|+1} \qquad (1)
has three different real number solutions x1,x2,x3x_1, x_2, x_3 (x1<x2<x3x_1 < x_2 < x_3) satisfying x1+x2+x3=0x_1 + x_2 + x_3 = 0.

Firstly, there is k0k \neq 0, otherwise the function of ll can only be y=1y = 1, but then the sum of the abscissas of any three common points of the graph of ll and function y=x+1x+1y = \frac{x+1}{|x|+1} must be greater than 00. This is not consistent with the question.

When x<0x < 0, Equation (1) can be arranged as
kx2(kb1)x+1b=0,(2) kx^2 - (k - b - 1)x + 1 - b = 0, \qquad (2)
and it has at most two negative solutions.

When x0x \ge 0, Equation (1) follows as
kx+b=1,(3) kx + b = 1, \qquad (3)
and it has at most one non-negative solution.

This shows that Equation (2) has two different negative solutions x1,x2x_1, x_2, where
x1+x2=kb12; x_1 + x_2 = \frac{k - b - 1}{2};
Equation (3) has a non-negative solution x3=1bkx_3 = \frac{1-b}{k}. By x1+x2+x3=0x_1 + x_2 + x_3 = 0, we know that k=2bk = 2b.

And then there is x3=1b2bx_3 = \frac{1-b}{2b}. Since x30x_3 \ge 0, we have 0<b10 < b \le 1.

Equation (2) becomes 2bx2+(1b)x+1b=02b x^2 + (1-b)x + 1 - b = 0. By discriminant
(1b)242b(1b)=(1b)(19b)>0 (1-b)^2 - 4 \cdot 2b(1-b) = (1-b)(1-9b) > 0
and combining 0<b10 < b \le 1, we have 0<b<190 < b < \frac{1}{9}. (After checking, x1,x2x_1, x_2 are indeed negative at this point, which is consistent with the question.)

In conclusion, the range of the slope k=2bk = 2b of ll is 0<k<290 < k < \frac{2}{9}.

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