Find all real numbers x satisfying the equation x3−8=163x+1.
Official solution
Let f(x)=8x3−8. Then f−1(x)=38x+8=23x+1, and so the given equation is equivalent to f(x)=f−1(x). This implies f(f(x))=x. However, as f is monotonically increasing, this implies that f(x)=x. As a result, we have 8x3−8=x⟹x3−8x−8=0⟹(x+2)(x2−2x−4)=0, and so x=−2,1±5.
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