Find the number of integer solutions of x.

Algebra Level 3

How many integer values of x satisfy this equation ?

|x−6| + |x−1| ≤ 13


The answer is 14.

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1 solution

Andy Hayes
Oct 22, 2015

We will consider different cases in which the expressions inside the absolute value signs will be negative or positive.

Case 1: x 1 x\le1

Both ( x 1 ) (x-1) and ( x 6 ) (x-6) will be negative/zero. The absolute values will negate these expressions to make them positive. We end up with the inequality:

x + 6 x + 1 13 -x+6-x+1\le13

Solving this inequality yields: x 3 x\ge-3 . The intersection of x 1 x\le1 and x 3 x\ge-3 is:

3 x 1 -3\le x\le1

Case 2: 1 < x 6 1<x\le6

( x 1 ) (x-1) will be positive while ( x 6 ) (x-6) will be negative/zero. The absolute value sign will do nothing to ( x 1 ) (x-1) and the absolute value sign will negate ( x 6 ) (x-6) in order to make it positive. We end up with the inequality:

x + 6 + x 1 13 -x+6+x-1\le13

Solving this yields 5 13 5\le13 , which is true regardless of the value of x x . Therefore, the inequality is true for the entire interval of this case.

Case 3: x > 6 x>6

Both ( x 1 ) (x-1) and ( x 6 ) (x-6) will be positive/zero. The absolute value signs will do nothing to either expression. We end up with the inequality:

x 6 + x 1 13 x-6+x-1\le13

Solving this yields x 10 x\le10 . The intersection of x > 6 x>6 and x 10 x\le10 is 6 < x 10 6<x\le10

The union of the solutions of all three cases is: 3 x 10 -3\le x\le10 , and there are 14 \boxed{14} integers in this interval.

Yup u proceded in the right way.........actually our main moto is to check all numbers in the real line and finally check which range and values satisfies our equation............+1 bro

Abhisek Mohanty - 4 years, 11 months ago

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