2020 AMC 12B Problems/Problem 22
Problem 22
What is the maximum value of for real values of
Solution1
Set . Then the expression in the problem can be written as It is easy to see that attains the value of for some value of between and , thus the maximal value of is .
Solution2
First, substitute so that
Notice that
When seen as a function, is a synthesis function that has as its inner function.
If we substitute , the given function becomes a quadratic function that has a maximum value of when .
Now we need to check that can have the value of in the range of real numbers.
In the range of (positive) real numbers, function is a continuous function whose value gets infinitely smaller as gets closer to 0 (as also diverges toward negative infinity in the same condition). When , , which is larger than .
Therefore, we can assume that equals to when is somewhere between 1 and 2 (at least), which means that the maximum value of is .