Maths Olympiad Prep

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Algebra Difficulty 4.8 AIME Prove it Philippines

Problem:
Solve the following inequality.
log1/2x2log4x+10 \log_{1/2} x - \sqrt{2 - \log_{4} x} + 1 \leq 0

Solution

Solution:
Note that 2log4x00<x162 - \log_{4} x \geq 0 \Longrightarrow 0 < x \leq 16. Let t=2log4xt = \sqrt{2 - \log_{4} x}. Then
log4x=2t2log1/2xlog1/24=2t2log1/2x=2t24 \log_{4} x = 2 - t^2 \Longrightarrow \frac{\log_{1/2} x}{\log_{1/2} 4} = 2 - t^2 \Longrightarrow \log_{1/2} x = 2 t^2 - 4
Substituting back to the given inequality, we have
2t24t+102t2t301t32 2 t^2 - 4 - t + 1 \leq 0 \Longrightarrow 2 t^2 - t - 3 \leq 0 \Longrightarrow -1 \leq t \leq \frac{3}{2}
Since t=2log4xt = \sqrt{2 - \log_{4} x}, this means that 02log4x320 \leq \sqrt{2 - \log_{4} x} \leq \frac{3}{2}, which has solution 12x16\frac{1}{\sqrt{2}} \leq x \leq 16.

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