A Nice Math Olympiad Algebra Problem

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  • เผยแพร่เมื่อ 26 ต.ค. 2024

ความคิดเห็น • 18

  • @KipIngram
    @KipIngram 2 หลายเดือนก่อน

    Obviously if you expand the right side you wind up with an a^4 that will cancel the one on the left. So this will just be a cubic polynomial, and that's readily solvable. On top of that, it's immediately clear that a = 0.5 is a real solution, so we could divide that out of the cubic and have a quadratic left.
    But, there is a better way to proceed. Do this:
    a^4 = (a-1)^4
    1 = (a-1)^4 / a^4
    1 = ((a-1)/a)^4
    1 = (1-1/a)^4
    So now we see that 1-1/a is the fourth roots of unity. So:
    1 - 1/a = 1
    1 - 1/a = i
    1 - 1/a = -1
    1 - 1/a = -i
    The first one of these leads to infinity for a - that's the one that goes away to leave us with just three solutions, as we decided right off the bat we needed (because the a^4 cancels from both sides). Now we can just solve the other three:
    a = 1/(1-i)
    a = 1/2
    a = 1/(1+i)
    You can put those into a more normalized form if you want, with the i's in the numerators, but those are the solutions.

  • @Nikioko
    @Nikioko 2 หลายเดือนก่อน

    a⁴ = (a − 1)⁴
    a⁴ = a⁴ − 4a³ + 6a² − 4a + 1
    0 = −4a³ + 6a² − 4a + 1
    a³ − 3a²/2 + a − 1/4 = 0
    (a − 1/2) ⋅ (a² − a + 1/2) = 0
    a₁ = 1/2
    a₂,₃ = 1/2 ± √(1/4 − 1/2)
    = 1/2 ± √(−1/4)
    = 1/2 ± i/2
    a₂ (1 − i) / 2 ∨ a₃ = (1 + i) / 2
    𝕃 = {1/2, (1−i)/2, (1+i)/2}

  •  2 หลายเดือนก่อน

    Answer is there by just looking at it

  • @MATECS12
    @MATECS12 2 หลายเดือนก่อน

    Sufficient grace Chinwedu

  • @nychan2939
    @nychan2939 2 หลายเดือนก่อน

    too straightforward

  • @GillesF31
    @GillesF31 2 หลายเดือนก่อน

    I did ...
    a⁴ = (a - 1)⁴

    a⁴ - (a - 1)⁴ = 0

    (a²)² - ((a - 1)²)² = 0

    (a² - (a - 1)²)·(a² + (a - 1)²) = 0

    (a² - (a² - 2a + 1))·(a² + (a² - 2a + 1)) = 0

    (a² - a² + 2a - 1)·(a² + a² - 2a + 1) = 0

    (2a - 1)·(2a² - 2a + 1) = 0

    /// case (2a - 1) = 0

    2a - 1 = 0

    a = 1/2

    /// case (2a² - 2a + 1) = 0

    2a² - 2a + 1 = 0

    Δ = (-2)² - 4·2·1 = 4 - 8 = -4

    √Δ = ±i√4 = 2i

    • root #1: a = (-(-2) + 2i)/(2·2) = 2/4 + 2i/4 = 1/2 + i/2

    • root #2: a = (-(-2) - 2i)/(2·2) = 2/4 + 2i/4 = 1/2 - i/2

    /// final results:

    ■ a = 1/2

    ■ a = 1/2 + i/2
    ■ a = 1/2 - i/2
    => I T ' S A S Y O U R S O L U T I O N B E C A U S E I T ' S A V E R Y N I C E W A Y T O S O L V E T H E E Q U A T I O N .
    🙂🙂🙂

    • @MathswithChinwendu
      @MathswithChinwendu  2 หลายเดือนก่อน

      Thank you so much for your kind words

  • @BruceMethven
    @BruceMethven 2 หลายเดือนก่อน

    And at the end of the day who really cares. And if it takes her that length of time to solve a fairly straightforward equation have all the students gone to sleep😂

  • @catchinoyo
    @catchinoyo 2 หลายเดือนก่อน

    Ja, schon klar. Wurzel aus einer negativen Zahl.... Bei diesem i-Blödsinn steigt doch jeder normal denkende Mensch aus. Schon die Aufgabe selbst a = a - 1 zeigt doch, daß es hier keine vernünftige Lösung geben kann.