Let and be reals. Find the least possible value of .
Solution
Let the vector and . The locus of ends of vectors expressible in the form are the points which are five units away from a point on the circle of radius two about the origin. The expression that we desire to minimize is the square of the distance from this point to . Thus, the closest distance from such a point to is when the point is 7 units away from the origin along the segment from the origin to . Thus, since is 17 units away from the origin, the minimum is .
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