1991 AIME Problems/Problem 7

Revision as of 22:50, 20 April 2007 by Gabiloncho (talk | contribs) (Solution)

Problem

Find $A^2_{}$, where $A^{}_{}$ is the sum of the absolute values of all roots of the following equation:

$x = \sqrt{19} + \frac{91}{{\displaystyle \sqrt{19}+\frac{91}{{\displaystyle \sqrt{19}+\frac{91}{{\displaystyle \sqrt{19}+\frac{91}{{\displaystyle \sqrt{19}+\frac{91}{x}}}}}}}}}$

Solution

The given finite expansion can be easily seen that reduces to solve the quadratic equation $x_{}^{2}-\sqrt{19}x-91=0$. The solutions are $x_{\pm}^{}=\frac{\sqrt{19}\pm\sqrt{383}}{2}$. Therefore, $A_{}^{}=\vert x_{+}\vert+\vert x_{-}\vert=\sqrt{383}$. Therefore, $A_{}^{2}=383$.

See also

1991 AIME (ProblemsAnswer KeyResources)
Preceded by
Problem 6
Followed by
Problem 8
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15
All AIME Problems and Solutions