For any non-zero real number x, let f(x) + 2f 1/x = 3x. Then, the sum of all possible values of x for which f(x) = 3 is:
Correct Answer :
-3
Solution :
The correct option is -3.
To find the sum of all possible values of for which , we first need to determine the function from the given functional equation:
Let this be Equation (1). Since this relation holds for any non-zero real number , we can substitute with in Equation (1) to obtain:
Rearranging the terms on the left-hand side, we get Equation (2):
Now we have a system of two linear equations in terms of and . To solve for , we can eliminate the term . We multiply Equation (2) by 2:
Let this be Equation (3). Next, we subtract Equation (1) from Equation (3):
Simplifying the equation yields:
Dividing by 3, we obtain the function :
We want to find the values of for which . Setting the function equal to 3 gives:
To eliminate the denominator, we multiply both sides of the equation by (since ):
Rearranging the terms into standard quadratic form :
We check the discriminant of this quadratic equation to ensure it has real roots:
Since the discriminant , there are two distinct real roots. Furthermore, neither root is zero because substituting into the equation gives . Therefore, both values are valid non-zero real inputs for our function.
By Vieta's formulas, the sum of the roots of the quadratic equation is given by:
Using the coefficients and :
Thus, the sum of all possible values of for which is .
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