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Algebra Difficulty 5.5 AIME, harder Find the answer

Define the function f:RRf: \mathbb{R} \rightarrow \mathbb{R} by f(x)={1x2+x4+2x if x(23,0]0 otherwise f(x)= \begin{cases}\frac{1}{x^{2}+\sqrt{x^{4}+2 x}} & \text { if } x \notin(-\sqrt[3]{2}, 0] \\ 0 & \text { otherwise }\end{cases} The sum of all real numbers xx for which f10(x)=1f^{10}(x)=1 can be written as a+bcd\frac{a+b \sqrt{c}}{d}, where a,b,c,da, b, c, d are integers, dd is positive, cc is square-free, and gcd(a,b,d)=1\operatorname{gcd}(a, b, d)=1. Find 1000a+100b+10c+d1000 a+100 b+10 c+d.

A number or a short expression. Spacing and $ signs are ignored.

Solution

If x(23,0]x \in(-\sqrt[3]{2}, 0], it is evidently not a solution, so let us assume otherwise. Then, we find f(x)=x4+2xx22xf(x)=\frac{\sqrt{x^{4}+2 x}-x^{2}}{2 x} which implies that xf(x)2+x2f(x)1/2=0x f(x)^{2}+x^{2} f(x)-1 / 2=0, by reverse engineering the quadratic formula. Therefore, if x>0,f(x)x>0, f(x) is the unique positive real tt so that xt2+x2t=1/2x t^{2}+x^{2} t=1 / 2. However, then xx is the unique positive real so that xt2+x2t=1/2x t^{2}+x^{2} t=1 / 2, so f(t)=xf(t)=x. This implies that if x>0x>0, then f(f(x))=xf(f(x))=x. Suppose that f10(x)=1f^{10}(x)=1. Then, since f(x)>0f(x)>0, we find that f(x)=f10(f(x))=f11(x)=f(1)f(x)=f^{10}(f(x))=f^{11}(x)=f(1). Conversely, if f(x)=f(1)f(x)=f(1), then f10(x)=f9(f(x))=f9(f(1))=1f^{10}(x)=f^{9}(f(x))=f^{9}(f(1))=1, so we only need to solve f(x)=f(1)f(x)=f(1). This is equivalent to x2+x4+2x=1+3x4+2x=1+3x2x4+2x=x42(1+3)x2+(1+3)2x^{2}+\sqrt{x^{4}+2 x}=1+\sqrt{3} \Longleftrightarrow \sqrt{x^{4}+2 x}=1+\sqrt{3}-x^{2} \Longrightarrow x^{4}+2 x=x^{4}-2(1+\sqrt{3}) x^{2}+(1+\sqrt{3})^{2}, which is equivalent to 2(1+3)x2+2x(1+3)2=02(1+\sqrt{3}) x^{2}+2 x-(1+\sqrt{3})^{2}=0 Obviously, if x=1x=1 then f(x)=f(1)f(x)=f(1), so we already know 1 is a root. This allows us to easily factor the quadratic and find that the other root is 1+32-\frac{1+\sqrt{3}}{2}. This ends up not being extraneous-perhaps the shortest way to see this is to observe that if x=1+32x=-\frac{1+\sqrt{3}}{2}, 1+3x2=(1+3)(11+34)>01+\sqrt{3}-x^{2}=(1+\sqrt{3})\left(1-\frac{1+\sqrt{3}}{4}\right)>0 so since we already know x4+2x=(1+3x2)2x^{4}+2 x=\left(1+\sqrt{3}-x^{2}\right)^{2} we have x4+2x=1+3x2\sqrt{x^{4}+2 x}=1+\sqrt{3}-x^{2} Therefore, the sum of solutions is 132\frac{1-\sqrt{3}}{2}.

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