Maths Olympiad Prep

Track / Stage 5 / 205 of 400 #805 of 1964

Problem 805

AIME late
Algebra Difficulty 5.5 Find the answer

2. The solution set of the equation 2x+222x+1+2x+1062x+1=2\sqrt{2 x+2-2 \sqrt{2 x+1}}+\sqrt{2 x+10-6 \sqrt{2 x+1}}=2 is

A number or a short expression. Spacing, $ signs and \frac vs / are all fine.

Official solution

2. [0,4][0,4].
(Method 1) It is easy to see that
2x+222x+1+2x+1062x+1=(2x+1)222x+1+12+(2x+1)262x+1+32=2x+11+2x+132, \begin{array}{l} \sqrt{2 x+2-2 \sqrt{2 x+1}}+\sqrt{2 x+10-6 \sqrt{2 x+1}} \\ =\sqrt{(\sqrt{2 x+1})^{2}-2 \sqrt{2 x+1}+1^{2}}+\sqrt{(\sqrt{2 x+1})^{2}-6 \sqrt{2 x+1}+3^{2}} \\ =|\sqrt{2 x+1}-1|+|\sqrt{2 x+1}-3| \\ \geqslant 2, \end{array}

where the equality holds if and only if 12x+131 \leqslant \sqrt{2 x+1} \leqslant 3, i.e., x[0,4]x \in[0,4].
(Method 2) According to the problem, we can set
2x+222x+1=1d,2x+1062x+1=1+d, \begin{array}{c} \sqrt{2 x+2-2 \sqrt{2 x+1}}=1-d, \\ \sqrt{2 x+10-6 \sqrt{2 x+1}}=1+d, \end{array}

From
{1d01+d0 \left\{\begin{array}{l} 1-d \geqslant 0 \\ 1+d \geqslant 0 \end{array}\right.

we get 1d1-1 \leqslant d \leqslant 1. By (2)2(1)2(2)^{2}-(1)^{2}, we get
2x+1=2d, \sqrt{2 x+1}=2-d,

Substituting into equations (1) and (2), we get
{1+(2d)2+2(2d)=1d,9+(2d)2+6(2d)=1+d \left\{\begin{array}{l} \sqrt{1+(2-d)^{2}+2(2-d)}=1-d, \\ \sqrt{9+(2-d)^{2}+6(2-d)}=1+d \end{array}\right.

which holds for all 1d1-1 \leqslant d \leqslant 1.
Therefore, the original equation holds as long as 2x+1=2d[1,3]\sqrt{2 x+1}=2-d \in[1,3], i.e., x[0,4]x \in[0,4].

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