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 . . . . 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