tackle an integer

Algebra Level 3

Compute the largest integer that can be expressed in the form 3 x ( 3 x ) 3^{x(3-x)} for some real number x x .


The answer is 11.

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1 solution

The given expression is 3 x ( 3 x ) = 3 3 x x 2 3^{x(3-x)}=3^{3x-x^2}

= 3 ( x 3 2 ) 2 + 9 4 =3^{-(x-\frac{3}{2})^2+\frac{9}{4}}

3 9 4 11.844666... \leq 3^{\frac{9}{4}}\approx 11.844666...

Hence the required answer is 11 \boxed {11} .

If the expression was 3 x ( 3 x ) 3^x(3-x) :

Differentiating with respect to x x and equating with zero, we see that the extremum of the expression occurs at x = 2 x=2 . At x = 0 x=0 , the differential coefficient is positive, showing that the expression is increasing at this point. At x = 3 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 x=2 is 9 \boxed 9 .

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