Of the four statements below, which are true?
I.
The equation
x
4
−
3
x
+
1
=
0
has a unique real solution.
II.
The equation
sin
x
=
x
has a unique real solution.
III.
The equation
3
x
5
−
2
0
x
3
+
6
0
x
+
1
6
=
0
has a unique real solution.
IV.
The equation
tan
x
=
x
has a unique real solution.
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This is a partial solution. But one way to solve this is to graph the functions.
y
=
0
at two points.
The second function clearly has a real solution,
(
0
,
0
)
, as
s
i
n
(
0
)
=
0
. And scanning the graph makes it look as if this is the only, unique, solution.
The third function is the green one, which clearly does cross the x-axis at one real point. And expands infinitely from there, so is unique.
The fourth function clearly has at least one real solution,
(
0
,
0
)
, however it's also apparent that each instance of
t
a
n
(
x
)
, for instance
t
a
n
(
x
)
bounded by
y
=
0
and
y
=
5
there is some point where
t
a
n
(
x
)
=
x
, so it's not unique.
let's focus one-by-one on each option:
I. for the equation l e t g ( x ) = x 4 − 3 x + 1 . By some observation, we get that: g ( 0 ) > 0 , g ( 1 ) < 0 , g ( 2 ) > 0 which by the *Intermediate value theorem * tells us that x 4 − 3 x + 1 = 0 have minimum 2 solution. So we won't choose any option that have (I)
II. for s i n x = x , notice that the gradient of tangent line on x = 0 is 1, which tells us that s i n x = x will have only 1 solution, that is x = 0
IV. t a n ( x ) = x clearly have many solutions (you can interpret it graphically.
III. left for reader as a practice
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For I, f ( 0 ) > 0 , f ( 1 ) < 0 , f ( 2 ) > 0 implies there are at least two solutions by IVT .
For II, x = 0 is clearly a solution, and the function f ( x ) = x − sin ( x ) has derivative 1 − cos ( x ) , which is nonnegative everywhere, so f is increasing everywhere, so there is only one solution.
For III, an odd-degree polynomial always has at least one real root (if the leading coefficient of f is positive, then f ( x ) is negative for negative enough x and positive for positive enough x ), and this one has exactly one because its derivative is 1 5 x 4 − 6 0 x 2 + 6 0 = 1 5 ( x 2 − 2 ) 2 , which is always nonnegative.
For IV, x = 0 is a solution, and there is also a solution between x = π and x = 3 π / 2 , because tan ( x ) − x = − π for x = π but tan ( x ) − x gets arbitrarily large as x approaches 3 π / 2 . Since tan ( x ) − x is continuous on [ π , 3 π / 2 ) , there will be a root on that interval as well. (Note that the derivative is nonnegative everywhere, but the function tan ( x ) − x is discontinuous at lots of different places.)
So the answer is II and III only.