Mock AIME 3 2006-2007 Problems/Problem 11
Problem
If
and
are real numbers such that
find the minimum value of
.
Solution 1
Factoring the LHS gives
.
Now converting to polar:
Since we want to find
,
Since we want the minimum of this expression, we need to maximize the denominator. The maximum of the sine function is 1
(one value of
which produces this maximum is
)
So the desired minimum is
Solution 2
Since
, finding the minimum value of
is similar to finding that of
. Let
, where
is the minimum value. We can rewrite this as
and
.
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.
.
.
We want this polynomial to factor in the form
, where at least one of
. ( If
, the equations
and
have no real solutions). Since
, both
and
, so
.
We can now use the “discriminant” to determine acceptable values of
.
simplifies to
.
Therefore, the minimum value of
.
<baker77>
Solution 3 (Lagrange Multipliers)
Since
,
will be minimized when
is at its minimum.
We construct the Lagrangian
and seek points where its gradient is zero to get the three equations:
Adding and subtracting the first two equations, dividing by two, and setting
for convenience yields:
We will use the last three equations to solve for
, then square the result for our answer.
Squaring each equation involving
and subtracting the results yields:
Multiplying the two equations involving
yields:
This can be substituted into the the previous equation:
Substituting this into our constraint yields:
Now, returning to the first equation involving
:
QED. -eiis1000