I want to find the solutions in R of [(x+1)/2]=[(2x+1)/(3)], where ⌊x⌋ is the unique integer such that ⌊x⌋ =< x<⌊x⌋+1.

Slovenujozk

Slovenujozk

Answered question

2022-09-06

x + 1 2 = 2 x + 1 3
I want to find the solutions in R of x + 1 2 = 2 x + 1 3 , where ⌊x⌋ is the unique integer such that x x < x + 1.
I solved it as follows. Let x + 1 2 = n. By the definition, n x + 1 2 < n + 1. Then 2 n 1 x < 2 n + 1, 4 n 2 2 x < 4 n + 2, 4 n 1 2 x + 1 < 4 n + 3, and finally, 4 n 3 1 3 2 x + 1 3 < 4 n 3 + 1. (1).
Now I analyzise n modulo 3.
If n = 3 k, then (1) becomes 4 k 1 3 2 x + 1 3 < 4 k + 1. Then either 2 x + 1 3 = 4 k 1, or 2 x + 1 3 = 4 k. From the equation itself, it follows that 3 k = 4 k 1, or 3 k = 4 k, so k = 0 or k = 1. It's easy to turn this into 2 intervals for x.
Similarly, I can continue for 3 k + 1 and 3 k + 2. This seems to lead to a solution, but is there perhaps a better way? Thank you for any ideas/verification of my solution.

Answer & Explanation

Lorenzo Aguilar

Lorenzo Aguilar

Beginner2022-09-07Added 18 answers

Step 1
First collect all like terms on both sides to get
x + 1 2 2 x + 1 3 = 0
Since n 1 n n, we have that
x + 1 2 1 2 x + 1 3 x + 1 2 2 x + 1 3 x + 1 2 2 x + 1 3 + 1
x + 1 2 1 2 x + 1 3 0 x + 1 2 2 x + 1 3 + 1
We can split this into two inequalities:
x + 1 2 2 x + 1 3 1 0
x + 1 2 2 x + 1 3 + 1 0
Solving the first inequality yields
3 x + 3 4 x 2 6 6 0
x 6 0
x 6
Solving the second inequality yields
3 x + 3 4 x 2 + 6 6 0
x + 7 0
x 7
So we have bounded our solutions to
6 x 7
Now, we will substitute u = 2 x (which has bounds 12 u 14), this is because we have the 2x term in the numerator of 2 x + 1 3 .
Our fractions are now
x + 1 2 = u + 2 4
2 x + 1 3 = u + 1 3
Note that the critical values of u + 2 4 occur when u 2 mod 4 and the critical values of u + 1 3 occur when u 2 mod 3.
The critical values on the interval [-12,14] are
{ 10 , 7 , 6 , 4 , 2 , 1 , 2 , 5 , 6 , 8 , 10 , 11 , 14 }
While somewhat tedious (you can expedite the process by making a table), we can test all of these for solutions to our original equation
u + 2 4 = u + 1 3
We get that the solutions are
u { 7 , 4 , 1 , 2 , 6 , 10 }
Hence the solutions must be the intervals
u [ 7 , 6 ) [ 4 , 2 ) [ 1 , 2 ) [ 2 , 5 ) [ 6 , 8 ) [ 10 , 11 )
Note that [ 1 , 2 ) [ 2 , 5 ) = [ 1 , 5 )
Now substituting u = 2 x, we have our final solution as the intervals
x [ 3.5 , 3 ) [ 2 , 1 ) [ .5 , 2.5 ) [ 3 , 4 ) [ 5 , 5.5 )

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