2011 AMC 12A Problems/Problem 21

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Problem

Let $f_{1}(x)=\sqrt{1-x}$, and for integers $n \geq 2$, let $f_{n}(x)=f_{n-1}(\sqrt{n^2 - x})$. If $N$ is the largest value of $n$ for which the domain of $f_{n}$ is nonempty, the domain of $f_{N}$ is $[c]$. What is $N+c$?

$\textbf{(A)}\ -226 \qquad \textbf{(B)}\ -144 \qquad \textbf{(C)}\ -20 \qquad \textbf{(D)}\ 20 \qquad \textbf{(E)}\ 144$

Solution

The domain of $f_{1}(x)=\sqrt{1-x}$ is defined when $x\leq-1$. $f_{2}(x)=f_{1}(\sqrt{4-x})=\sqrt{1-\sqrt{4-x}}$. Applying the domain of $f_{1}(x)$ and the fact that square roots must be positive, we get $0\leq\sqrt{4-x}\leq1$. Simplify this to arrive at the domain for $f_{2}(x)$, which is defined when $3\leqx\leq4$ (Error compiling LaTeX. Unknown error_msg). Repeat this process for $f_{3}(x)=\sqrt{1-\sqrt{4-\sqrt{9-x}}}$ to get a domain of $-7\leqx\leq0$ (Error compiling LaTeX. Unknown error_msg). For $f_{4}(x)$, since square roots are positive, we can exclude the negative values of the previous domain to arrive at $\sqrt{16-x}=0$ as the domain of $f_{4}(x)$. We now arrive at a domain with a single number that defines $x$, however, since we are looking for the largest value for $n$ for which the domain of $f_{n}$ is nonempty, we must continue until we arrive at a domain that is empty. We continue with $f_{5}(x)$ to get a domain of $\sqrt{25-x}=16$. Solve for $x$ to get $x=-231$. Since square roots cannot be negative, this is the last nonempty domain. We add to get $5-231=\boxed{\textbf{(A)}\ -226}$.

See also

2011 AMC 12A (ProblemsAnswer KeyResources)
Preceded by
Problem 20
Followed by
Problem 22
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