Maths Olympiad Prep

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Algebra Difficulty 4.4 AIME Prove it United States

Problem:
A positive real number xx is such that
1x33+1+x33=1 \sqrt[3]{1-x^{3}}+\sqrt[3]{1+x^{3}}=1
Find x2x^{2}.

Solution

Solution:
Answer: 2833\frac{\sqrt[3]{28}}{3}. Cubing the given equation yields
1=(1x3)+3(1x3)(1+x3)3(1x33+1+x33)+(1+x3)=2+31x63 1=\left(1-x^{3}\right)+3 \sqrt[3]{\left(1-x^{3}\right)\left(1+x^{3}\right)}\left(\sqrt[3]{1-x^{3}}+\sqrt[3]{1+x^{3}}\right)+\left(1+x^{3}\right)=2+3 \sqrt[3]{1-x^{6}}
Then 13=1x63\frac{-1}{3}=\sqrt[3]{1-x^{6}}, so 127=1x6\frac{-1}{27}=1-x^{6} and x6=2827x^{6}=\frac{28}{27} and x2=2833x^{2}=\frac{\sqrt[3]{28}}{3}.

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