202111251031 Solution to 1995-IB-MATH-HL-I-3

Find the value of $x$ such that

$\begin{array}{|cc|} x & 6 \\ x & x \end{array} = \begin{array}{|ccc|} 2 & 1 & 3 \\ 1 & 2 & 3 \\ 3 & 1 & 1 \end{array}$ .

Working.

$\begin{aligned} \textrm{LHS} & = x^2 - 6x \\ \textrm{RHS} & = 2 \cdot \begin{array}{|cc|} 2 & 3 \\ 1 & 1 \end{array} - 1 \cdot \begin{array}{|cc|} 1 & 3 \\ 3 & 1 \end{array} + 3 \cdot \begin{array}{|cc|} 1 & 2 \\ 3 & 1 \end{array} \\ & = 2\big( (2)(1)-(1)(3) \big) - 1\big( (1)(1)-(3)(3) \big) + 3\big( (1)(1)-(3)(2) \big) \\ & = 2(-1) - 1(-8) + 3(-5) \\ & = -9 \\ \end{aligned}$

$\begin{aligned} \textrm{LHS} & = \textrm{RHS} \\ x^2-6x & = -9 \\ x^2-6x+9 & = 0 \\ (x-3)^2 & = 0 \\ x & = 3 \qquad\textrm{(double roots)} \\ \end{aligned}$

Answers.

$x=3$ .

M	T	W	T	F	S	S
1	2	3	4	5	6	7
8	9	10	11	12	13	14
15	16	17	18	19	20	21
22	23	24	25	26	27	28
29	30

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