Compute the largest integer that can be expressed in the form for some real number .
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The given expression is 3 x ( 3 − x ) = 3 3 x − x 2
= 3 − ( x − 2 3 ) 2 + 4 9
≤ 3 4 9 ≈ 1 1 . 8 4 4 6 6 6 . . .
Hence the required answer is 1 1 .
If the expression was 3 x ( 3 − x ) :
Differentiating with respect to x and equating with zero, we see that the extremum of the expression occurs at x = 2 . At x = 0 , the differential coefficient is positive, showing that the expression is increasing at this point. At x = 3 , the value of the expression is zero. This implies that the extremum is actually a maximum. The maximum value of the expression at x = 2 is 9 .