39th Swedish 1999 Problem 1 Solve |||||x 2 -x-1| - 2| - 3| - 4| - 5| = x 2 + x - 30.
x = 7½ Solution lhs ≥ 0, so x 2 + x ≥ 30, so x ≥ 5 or ≤ -6. Hence x 2 -x ≥ 20, so we do not need the absolute value signs and lhs = x2-x-15. Hence x = 7 1/2. 39th Swedish 1999 © John Scholes jscholes@kalva.demon.co.uk 16 January 2004 Last corrected/updated 16 Jan 04