Maths Olympiad Prep

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Algebra Difficulty 5.1 AIME, harder Prove it United States

Problem:
Find pp so that limxxp(x+13+x132x3)\lim_{x \rightarrow \infty} x^{p}(\sqrt[3]{x+1}+\sqrt[3]{x-1}-2 \sqrt[3]{x}) is some non-zero real number.

Solution

Solution:
Answer: 53\frac{5}{3}

Make the substitution t=1xt=\frac{1}{x}. Then the limit equals to
limt0tp(1t+13+1t1321t3)=limt0tp13(1+t3+1t32) \lim_{t \rightarrow 0} t^{-p}\left(\sqrt[3]{\frac{1}{t}+1}+\sqrt[3]{\frac{1}{t}-1}-2 \sqrt[3]{\frac{1}{t}}\right)=\lim_{t \rightarrow 0} t^{-p-\frac{1}{3}}(\sqrt[3]{1+t}+\sqrt[3]{1-t}-2)
We need the degree of the first nonzero term in the Maclaurin expansion of 1+t3+1t32\sqrt[3]{1+t}+\sqrt[3]{1-t}-2. We have
1+t3=1+13t19t2+o(t2),1t3=113t19t2+o(t2) \sqrt[3]{1+t}=1+\frac{1}{3} t-\frac{1}{9} t^{2}+o\left(t^{2}\right), \quad \sqrt[3]{1-t}=1-\frac{1}{3} t-\frac{1}{9} t^{2}+o\left(t^{2}\right)
It follows that 1+t3+1t32=29t2+o(t2)\sqrt[3]{1+t}+\sqrt[3]{1-t}-2=-\frac{2}{9} t^{2}+o\left(t^{2}\right). By considering the degree of the leading term, it follows that p13=2-p-\frac{1}{3}=-2. So p=53p=\frac{5}{3}.

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