.
I am familiar with this problem . . .
It was posted to the forum a week or two ago, and I solved it . . .
So, I know that the formulation in THIS post IS NOT EXACTLY PRECISE.
Therefore, I edited it, and the EDITED formulation (the only correct, valid and right version) is THIS:
Evaluate
Below is the solution:
Let us consider, for brewity of writing, more general expression
= x, (1)
where a = , b = . Square (1) (both sides). You will get then
= ,
= . (2)
Square (2) (both sides). You will get then
= . (3)
= . (4)
Notice that the right side of the expression (4) is the same as the given expression, so it is equal to x. Thus you have
= x.
It is equivalent to
- = x, or
= 0.
Now substitute here a = , b = . You will get this equation in the form
= 0, or, multiplying all the terms by 3
= 0.
The plot of the last polynomial is shown below.
Plot y =
It clearly shows that x= 1 and x= 2 are the roots. Having this HINT, you can check it MANUALLY (as I did . . . ).
The two other roots of the polynomial are complex numbers.
Since the value of is, obviously, real number greater than 1, it can be only 2.
It proves that = 2.
Answer. = 2.
Check. = 1.984 (approximately).
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See the lesson
- Evaluating expressions that contain infinitely many square roots
in this site.