Maths Olympiad Prep

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Algebra Difficulty 5.1 AIME, harder Find the answer

15. If the equation 2kx1xx2x=kx+1x\frac{2 k}{x-1}-\frac{x}{x^{2}-x}=\frac{k x+1}{x} has only one solution, find the value of kk and the solution of the equation.

A number or a short expression. Fractions can be typed as 3/2, and spacing doesn't matter.

Solution

Three, 15. The original equation simplifies to
kx23kx+2x1=0 k x^{2}-3 k x+2 x-1=0 \text {. }

When k=0k=0, the original equation has a unique solution x=12x=\frac{1}{2}.
When k0k \neq 0, for equation (1),
Δ=(3k2)2+4k=5k2+4(k1)2>0 \Delta=(3 k-2)^{2}+4 k=5 k^{2}+4(k-1)^{2}>0 \text {. }

Therefore, there are always two distinct real roots. According to the problem, the original equation has only one solution, so one of the roots must be an extraneous root. From the original equation, the extraneous root can only be 0 or 1. Clearly, 0 is not a root of (1), so x=1x=1 is a root of equation (1). Substituting into (1) gives k=12k=\frac{1}{2}.

By Vieta's formulas, the root of the original equation is 1k=2-\frac{1}{k}=-2.
Therefore, when k=0k=0, the solution to the equation is x=12x=\frac{1}{2}.
When k=12k=\frac{1}{2}, the solution to the equation is x=2x=-2.

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