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Belorusija 2012

Belarus 2012 algebra

Problem

The graphs of the functions , , have the unique common point of the intersection, and the graph of has no another common points with the graphs of and . All are non-zero pairwise distinct real numbers. Find all possible values of .
Solution
Since the graphs of and has exactly one common point, the equation , i.e. the equation has exactly one root. So, its discriminant is equal to , i.e. . By condition, , i.e. , so we have or

From (1) and (2) it follows , whence . Thus is an abscissa of the common point of all three graphs.

Since the graphs of and has also exactly one common point, the equation , i.e. the equation has exactly one root. Therefore, . But , so From (2), (3) and (4) we obtain , and . It is easy to see that for these values of , and the graphs of all three functions have exactly one common point.
Final answer
a = 3/11, b = -8/11, c = 4/11

Techniques

Quadratic functions