Difference between revisions of "2004 AMC 12B Problems/Problem 16"
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− | Hi franzliszt, I wanted to say first, that this isn't a criticism. I have seen much of your contributions and find you to be a rather impressive thinker. I just wanted to share some insight on your above solution. It doesn't actually work but happens to produce the correct answer by coincidence. I noticed this today as I was going through the problem with one of my students. The reason is you made an assumption that because (3,4) produces a magnitude of 5 that they must somehow satisfy the original problem. But they fail the second requirement. Namely that f(z) be equal to z. To demonstrate f(z)= i(a-bi)=b+ai as you state. But that in turn must be equal to z which is a+bi. So for (3,4) to be a solution it would need to be true that 4+3i be equal to 3+4i. However this is not true and so the solution fails. As the 3rd solution below this one notes, 'a' must actually be equal to 'b'. I hope you do not feel any embarrassment about this, you are an excellent problem solver and contributor and I have made similar type mistakes many times in my solving and teaching. I am posting this comment so that other viewers of the page can understand in the event they were confused by your solution. | + | |
+ | Hi franzliszt, I wanted to say first, that this isn't a criticism. I have seen much of your contributions and find you to be a rather impressive thinker. I just wanted to share some insight on your above solution. It doesn't actually work but happens to produce the correct answer by coincidence. I noticed this today as I was going through the problem with one of my students. The reason is you made an assumption that because (3,4) produces a magnitude of 5 that they must somehow satisfy the original problem. But they fail the second requirement. Namely that f(z) be equal to z. To demonstrate f(z)= i(a-bi)=b+ai as you state. But that in turn must be equal to z which is a+bi. So for (3,4) to be a solution it would need to be true that 4+3i be equal to 3+4i. However this is not true and so the solution fails. As the 3rd solution below this one notes, 'a' must actually be equal to 'b'. I hope you do not feel any embarrassment about this, you are an excellent problem solver and contributor and I have made similar type mistakes many times in my solving and teaching. I am posting this comment so that other viewers of the page can understand in the event they were confused by your solution. | ||
+ | |||
Best Regards, | Best Regards, | ||
IceMatrix | IceMatrix |
Revision as of 02:57, 13 July 2021
Problem
A function is defined by
, where
and
is the complex conjugate of
. How many values of
satisfy both
and
?
Solutions
Solution 1
Let , so
. By definition,
, which implies that all solutions to
lie on the line
on the complex plane. The graph of
is a circle centered at the origin, and there are
intersections.
Solution 2
We start the same as the above solution: Let , so
. By definition,
. Since we are given
, this implies that
. We recognize the Pythagorean triple
so we see that
or
. So the answer is
.
Solution by franzliszt
Comment by IceMatrix
Hi franzliszt, I wanted to say first, that this isn't a criticism. I have seen much of your contributions and find you to be a rather impressive thinker. I just wanted to share some insight on your above solution. It doesn't actually work but happens to produce the correct answer by coincidence. I noticed this today as I was going through the problem with one of my students. The reason is you made an assumption that because (3,4) produces a magnitude of 5 that they must somehow satisfy the original problem. But they fail the second requirement. Namely that f(z) be equal to z. To demonstrate f(z)= i(a-bi)=b+ai as you state. But that in turn must be equal to z which is a+bi. So for (3,4) to be a solution it would need to be true that 4+3i be equal to 3+4i. However this is not true and so the solution fails. As the 3rd solution below this one notes, 'a' must actually be equal to 'b'. I hope you do not feel any embarrassment about this, you are an excellent problem solver and contributor and I have made similar type mistakes many times in my solving and teaching. I am posting this comment so that other viewers of the page can understand in the event they were confused by your solution.
Best Regards, IceMatrix
Solution 3
Let , like above. Therefore,
. We move some terms around to get
. We factor:
. We divide out the common factor to see that
. Next we put this into the definition of
. Finally,
, and
has two solutions.
See also
2004 AMC 12B (Problems • Answer Key • Resources) | |
Preceded by Problem 15 |
Followed by Problem 17 |
1 • 2 • 3 • 4 • 5 • 6 • 7 • 8 • 9 • 10 • 11 • 12 • 13 • 14 • 15 • 16 • 17 • 18 • 19 • 20 • 21 • 22 • 23 • 24 • 25 | |
All AMC 12 Problems and Solutions |
The problems on this page are copyrighted by the Mathematical Association of America's American Mathematics Competitions.