Maths Olympiad Prep

Library / /486 of 520

Algebra Difficulty 6.0 AIME, harder Prove it

Prove that the equation 3ax2+2bx(a+b)=03 a x^{2}+2 b x-(a+b)=0 has at least one real root in (0,1)(0,1).

Translate the above text into English, please keep the original text's line breaks and format, and output the translation result directly.

Solution

Prove: When a=0a=0, the equation becomes 2bx=b2 b x=b. Then, regardless of the value of bb, there is always a root x=12(0,1)x=\frac{1}{2} \in(0,1).
When a0a \neq 0, let f(x)=3ax2+2bx(a+b)f(x)=3 a x^{2}+2 b x-(a+b).
Below, find x1<x2x_{1}<x_{2}, such that
f(x1)f(x2)0. .  f\left(x_{1}\right) \cdot f\left(x_{2}\right) \leqslant 0 \text{. . }
 Two f(x1)=3ax12+2bx1(a+b),f(x2)=3ax22+2bx2(a+b). Let f(x1)=f(x2). Then 3ax12+2bx1(a+b)=3ax222bx2+(a+b), \begin{array}{l} \text { Two } f\left(x_{1}\right)=3 a x_{1}^{2}+2 b x_{1}-(a+b), \\ f\left(x_{2}\right)=3 a x_{2}^{2}+2 b x_{2}-(a+b) . \\ \text { Let } f\left(x_{1}\right)=-f\left(x_{2}\right) \text{. Then } \\ 3 a x_{1}^{2}+2 b x_{1}-(a+b) \\ =-3 a x_{2}^{2}-2 b x_{2}+(a+b), \end{array}

i.e., (3x12+3x222)u+(2x1+2x22)b=0\left(3 x_{1}^{2}+3 x_{2}^{2}-2\right) u+\left(2 x_{1}+2 x_{2}-2\right) b=0.
The above equation holds for different values of aa and bb, then
{3x12+3x222=02x1+2x22=0 \left\{\begin{array}{l} 3 x_{1}^{2}+3 x_{2}^{2}-2=0 \\ 2 x_{1}+2 x_{2}-2=0 \end{array}\right.

Solving, we get x1=336,x2=3+36x_{1}=\frac{3-\sqrt{3}}{6}, x_{2}=\frac{3+\sqrt{3}}{6}.
Thus, we have found x1<x2x_{1}<x_{2}, such that
f(x1)f(x2)=f(x1)[f(x1)]=f2(x1)0 \begin{array}{l} f\left(x_{1}\right) f\left(x_{2}\right)=f\left(x_{1}\right)\left[-f\left(x_{1}\right)\right] \\ =-f^{2}\left(x_{1}\right) \leqslant 0 \end{array}

is satisfied.
At this time, by 0<336<336<10<\frac{3-\sqrt{3}}{6}<\frac{3-\sqrt{3}}{6}<1, if
f(x1)f(x2)=0 f\left(x_{1}\right) f\left(x_{2}\right)=0 \text{, }

then it is proven that x1x_{1} and x2x_{2} are both roots of the original equation, and the proposition is established.
If f(x1)f(x2)<0f\left(x_{1}\right) f\left(x_{2}\right)<0, by the graph of a linear equation, it is known that f(x)=3ax2+2bx(a+b)f(x)=3 a x^{2}+2 b x-(a+b) intersects the xx-axis at one point in (x1,x2)\left(x_{1}, x_{2}\right). This indicates that the original equation has one real root in (x1,x2)\left(x_{1}, x_{2}\right), hence the original equation has one real root in (0,1)(0,1), and the proposition is established.
In summary, the proposition is proven.
(Yang Yongliang, Yangtze River No.5 Middle School, Yueyang City, Hunan Province, 414411)

Want a route through all this instead of an archive? The track puts 2,000 problems in a working order, from AMC 10 level to the IMO shortlist.

Source: NuminaMath-1.5, licensed Apache-2.0. Statement and solution reproduced as published; topic and difficulty added by this site.