HSC 2012 MX2 Marathon (archive) (1 Viewer)

SpiralFlex

Well-Known Member
Joined
Dec 18, 2010
Messages
6,954
Gender
Female
HSC
N/A
Re: 2012 HSC MX2 Marathon

You are right.

Note: People who have posted in this thread are NOT ALLOWED to answer this. I want some fellow extension 2 students to feel welcomed. :)





 

deswa1

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jul 12, 2011
Messages
2,251
Gender
Male
HSC
2012
Re: 2012 HSC MX2 Marathon





I don't know how to plot them on here but the third part:
c) All diagonals are equal length (all have modulus 1). They are perpendicular to each other (separation of pi degrees). Therefore the quadrilateral is a square with diagonal length 2 units. Each side has length root 2 so the area of the quad is 2 units squared.

Hooray, first time using latex :).
A few questions: How do you type text without it becoming bunched up and how do you align your equals signs? I tried following the guide but it wasn't working...
 

deswa1

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jul 12, 2011
Messages
2,251
Gender
Male
HSC
2012
Re: 2012 HSC MX2 Marathon

Thanks for that :). How would you do this question:
complex.png

I could do it but the second part took me a bit of time whilst in the answers they just wrote it down with no working (past school paper). Am I missing something ridiculously simple?
 

Carrotsticks

Retired
Joined
Jun 29, 2009
Messages
9,467
Gender
Undisclosed
HSC
N/A
Re: 2012 HSC MX2 Marathon

Thanks for that :). How would you do this question:
View attachment 24089

I could do it but the second part took me a bit of time whilst in the answers they just wrote it down with no working (past school paper). Am I missing something ridiculously simple?
Show us the method that you used.
 

deswa1

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jul 12, 2011
Messages
2,251
Gender
Male
HSC
2012
Re: 2012 HSC MX2 Marathon

The answer is pi/4. The way I did it was find the gradient of the line passing through the origin that was a tangent to the parabola since that would have the minimum argument of z and then used the fact that the gradient of a line equals the tangent of the argument to get pi/4. There must be some easier way though isn't there?
 

lolcakes52

Member
Joined
Oct 31, 2011
Messages
283
Gender
Undisclosed
HSC
2012
Re: 2012 HSC MX2 Marathon

The answer is pi/4. The way I did it was find the gradient of the line passing through the origin that was a tangent to the parabola since that would have the minimum argument of z and then used the fact that the gradient of a line equals the tangent of the argument to get pi/4. There must be some easier way though isn't there?
Did you sketch the graph? That sometimes gives the answer away especially in complex number questions. However I don't think there is a quicker algebraic method but I could be wrong.
 

bleakarcher

Active Member
Joined
Jul 8, 2011
Messages
1,503
Gender
Male
HSC
2013
Re: 2012 HSC MX2 Marathon

I considered that the arg(z)=tan^(-1)[y/x] and once I had the cartesian equation of the curve I just used calculus. Note that the curve is a parabola that is concave up and that the minimum clearly must occur in the first quadrant
 
Last edited:

Carrotsticks

Retired
Joined
Jun 29, 2009
Messages
9,467
Gender
Undisclosed
HSC
N/A
Re: 2012 HSC MX2 Marathon

The method I'm using below can be handy sometimes, because it gives me max AND min argument immediately. Of course there are other ways, but it's really just preference.:











EDIT:

I considered that the arg(z)=tan^(-1)[y/x] and once I had the cartesian equation of the curve I just used calculus. Note that the curve is a parabola that is concave up and that the minimum clearly must occur in the first quadrant
How did you use calculus for this problem?
 
Last edited:

bleakarcher

Active Member
Joined
Jul 8, 2011
Messages
1,503
Gender
Male
HSC
2013
Re: 2012 HSC MX2 Marathon

arg(z)=tan^(-1)[y/x]=tan^(-1)[(x^2+4)/4x]. Let arg(z)=A.
Now, A=tan^(-1)[(x^2+4)/4x]
Differentiate with respect to x and set the derivative equal to 0 in order to find the point at which A is a minimum. You find that a minimum occurs at the point (2,2). Hence it follows that the minimum value for the arg(z)=tan^(-1)[2/2]=tan^(-1)[1]=pi/4
 

Carrotsticks

Retired
Joined
Jun 29, 2009
Messages
9,467
Gender
Undisclosed
HSC
N/A
Re: 2012 HSC MX2 Marathon

arg(z)=tan^(-1)[y/x]=tan^(-1)[(x^2+4)/4x]. Let arg(z)=A.
Now, A=tan^(-1)[(x^2+4)/4x]
Differentiate with respect to x and set the derivative equal to 0 in order to find the point at which A is a minimum. You find that a minimum occurs at the point (2,2). Hence it follows that the minimum value for the arg(z)=tan^(-1)[2/2]=tan^(-1)[1]=pi/4
It's good to see new methods pop up. I never thought of this. Nice work!

However, It is a wee bit slow. Another problem I can see coming is that you will need to actually show that it is in fact max/min, which can get quite tedious.
 

bleakarcher

Active Member
Joined
Jul 8, 2011
Messages
1,503
Gender
Male
HSC
2013
Re: 2012 HSC MX2 Marathon

yeh lol, i couldnt think of anything else.
 

deswa1

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jul 12, 2011
Messages
2,251
Gender
Male
HSC
2012
Re: 2012 HSC MX2 Marathon

Thanks guys. The way I did it was Carrotsticks way but I don't get how that can only be a one mark question...
 

seanieg89

Well-Known Member
Joined
Aug 8, 2006
Messages
2,653
Gender
Male
HSC
2007
Re: 2012 HSC MX2 Marathon

It's good to see new methods pop up. I never thought of this. Nice work!

However, It is a wee bit slow. Another problem I can see coming is that you will need to actually show that it is in fact max/min, which can get quite tedious.
It can be made pretty fast...observe that arctan is an increasing function of the positive reals and that with equality attained at x=2.

So

with equality attained for some z.
 
Last edited:

Carrotsticks

Retired
Joined
Jun 29, 2009
Messages
9,467
Gender
Undisclosed
HSC
N/A
Re: 2012 HSC MX2 Marathon

Thanks guys. The way I did it was Carrotsticks way but I don't get how that can only be a one mark question...
If it's only a 1 mark question, then a solution by simple inspection will suffice (seanieg89's way).

If it is more, then perhaps a more 'definite' proof may be required.
 

maths lover

Member
Joined
Feb 22, 2011
Messages
292
Gender
Male
HSC
2012
Re: 2012 HSC MX2 Marathon

The method I'm using below can be handy sometimes, because it gives me max AND min argument immediately. Of course there are other ways, but it's really just preference.:











EDIT:

How did you use calculus for this problem?
i am going to rep you for this very intuitive method(me thinks). avoids allot of the tedious trigonometry i usually use for these types of questions.
 

rolpsy

Member
Joined
Apr 9, 2011
Messages
94
Gender
Male
HSC
2012
Re: 2012 HSC MX2 Marathon



 
Last edited:

Users Who Are Viewing This Thread (Users: 0, Guests: 1)

Top