Let . How many real values of satisfy ?
Answer and explanation
Correct answer: C.
- Step 1: gives or , so we need or .
- Step 2: gives or .
- Step 3: gives , with discriminant , so .
- Step 4: These four values are all different, so there are solutions.
Answer
.
Why not the others: The equations and have discriminants and and no common root, so each gives two different solutions and the total is four. Three would need a repeated or shared root, and five exceeds the degree of a quartic.
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