Maths Olympiad Prep

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Algebra Difficulty 5.6 AIME, harder Prove it Romania

Solve in real numbers the equation 2(5x+6x3x)=7x+9x2(5^x + 6^x - 3^x) = 7^x + 9^x.

Solution

We claim that the only solutions are x=0x = 0 and x=1x = 1.

The given equation can be rewritten as follows:
5x((75)x+(35)x2)+6x((96)x+(36)x2)=0. () 5^x \left( \left(\frac{7}{5}\right)^x + \left(\frac{3}{5}\right)^x - 2 \right) + 6^x \left( \left(\frac{9}{6}\right)^x + \left(\frac{3}{6}\right)^x - 2 \right) = 0. \ (\star)
Considering the functions fa:RRf_a : \mathbb{R} \to \mathbb{R}, fa(x)=ax+(2a)x2f_a(x) = a^x + (2-a)^x - 2, with a(0,2){1}a \in (0, 2) \setminus \{1\}, we notice that they are strictly convex with fa(0)=fa(1)=0f_a(0) = f_a(1) = 0. Moreover, we have:
fa(x)=fa(x1+(1x)0)<xfa(1)+(1x)fa(0)=0, f_a(x) = f_a(x \cdot 1 + (1-x) \cdot 0) < x \cdot f_a(1) + (1-x) \cdot f_a(0) = 0,
for all x(0,1)x \in (0, 1), and
fa(1)=fa(x1x0+(1x1x)x)<x1xfa(0)+1xfa(x), f_a(1) = f_a \left( \frac{x-1}{x} \cdot 0 + \left(1 - \frac{x-1}{x}\right) \cdot x \right) < \frac{x-1}{x} f_a(0) + \frac{1}{x} f_a(x),
for all x(1,)x \in (1, \infty),
fa(0)=fa(11xx+(111x)1)<11xfa(x)+x1xfa(1), f_a(0) = f_a \left( \frac{1}{1-x} \cdot x + \left(1 - \frac{1}{1-x}\right) \cdot 1 \right) < \frac{1}{1-x} f_a(x) + \frac{-x}{1-x} f_a(1),
for all x(,0)x \in (-\infty, 0), so fa(x)>0f_a(x) > 0, for each x(,0)(1,)x \in (-\infty, 0) \cup (1, \infty). The equivalent equation from ()(\star) is:
5xf75(x)+6xf96(x)=0, 5^x f_{\frac{7}{5}}(x) + 6^x f_{\frac{9}{6}}(x) = 0,
so the left member is strictly less than zero for x(0,1)x \in (0, 1) and strictly greater than zero for x(,0)(1,)x \in (-\infty, 0) \cup (1, \infty), thus proving our claim.

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