2020 AMC 12B Problems/Problem 22
Contents
[hide]Problem 22
What is the maximum value of for real values of
Solution 1
Set . Then the expression in the problem can be written as It is easy to see that is attained for some value of between and , thus the maximal value of is .
Solution 2 (Calculus Needed)
We want to maximize . We can use the first derivative test. Use quotient rule to get the following: Therefore, we plug this back into the original equation to get
~awesome1st
Solution 3
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 if 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 .
Solution 4 (AM-GM)
Note that by AM-GM, So Equality holds iff which happens for some since and .
See Also
2020 AMC 12B (Problems • Answer Key • Resources) | |
Preceded by Problem 21 |
Followed by Problem 23 |
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