Integrating Floor

Calculus Level 4

0 2 x 2 x + 1 d x \large \int_0^2 \lfloor x^2 - x + 1 \rfloor \ dx

If the integral above equals to a a b \frac {a- \sqrt a}{b} for positive integers a , b a,b , find a + b a+b .


The answer is 7.

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2 solutions

Chew-Seong Cheong
Apr 27, 2015

Let f ( x ) = x 2 x + 1 f(x) = x^2-x+1 .

When f ( x ) = 1 x 2 x + 1 = 1 f(x) = 1\quad \Rightarrow x^2-x+1 = 1

x 2 x = 0 x ( x 1 ) = 0 { x = 0 x = 1 \Rightarrow x^2-x = 0 \quad \Rightarrow x(x-1) = 0 \quad \Rightarrow \begin{cases} x = 0 \\ x = 1 \end{cases}

When f ( x ) = 2 x 2 x + 1 = 2 f(x) = 2\quad \Rightarrow x^2-x+1 = 2

x 2 x 1 = 0 x = 1 + 5 2 \Rightarrow x^2-x - 1= 0 \quad \Rightarrow x = \dfrac {1+\sqrt{5}}{2} , since x > 0 x > 0

When x = 2 f ( 2 ) = 3 x=2\quad \Rightarrow f(2) = 3 .

Therefore, { x 2 x + 1 = 0 for x ( 0 , 1 ) x 2 x + 1 = 1 for x [ 1 , 1 + 5 2 ) x 2 x + 1 = 2 for x [ 1 + 5 2 , 2 ) \begin{cases} \lfloor x^2-x+1 \rfloor = 0 \text{ for } x \in (0,1) \\ \lfloor x^2-x+1 \rfloor = 1 \text{ for } x \in \left[1,\frac {1+\sqrt{5}}{2}\right) \\ \lfloor x^2-x+1 \rfloor = 2 \text{ for } x \in \left[\frac {1+\sqrt{5}}{2},2 \right) \end{cases}

0 2 x 2 x + 1 d x = 1 1 + 5 2 d x + 1 + 5 2 2 2 d x = 1 + 5 2 1 + 2 ( 2 1 + 5 2 ) = 1 + 5 + 4 2 5 2 = 5 5 2 \Rightarrow \begin{aligned} \displaystyle \int_0^2 {\lfloor x^2-x+1 \rfloor dx} & = \int_1^{\frac {1+\sqrt{5}}{2}} { dx} + \int_{\frac {1+\sqrt{5}}{2}}^2 {2 dx} \\ & = \frac {1+\sqrt{5}}{2} - 1 + 2\left( 2 - \frac {1+\sqrt{5}}{2} \right) \\ & = \frac {1 + \sqrt{5} + 4 - 2\sqrt{5}}{2} = \frac {5 - \sqrt{5}}{2} \end{aligned}

a + b = 5 + 2 = 7 \Rightarrow a + b = 5 + 2 = \boxed{7}

nice question @Tanishq Varshney !

Keshav Tiwari - 6 years, 1 month ago
Rajat Kharbanda
Apr 27, 2015

did the same.

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