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Nonlinear equations in one variable and systems of equations in two variables SAT question

Math · Advanced Math · Hard · Answer it here, explanation included.

In the -plane, a line with equation intersects a parabola at exactly one point. If the parabola has equation , where is a positive constant, what is the value of ?

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ExplanationShow

The correct answer is . It’s given that a line with equation  intersects a parabola with equation , where is a positive constant, at exactly one point in the xy-plane. It follows that the system of equations consisting of  and  has exactly one solution. Dividing both sides of the equation of the line by yields . Substituting for in the equation of the parabola yields . Adding and subtracting from both sides of this equation yields . A quadratic equation in the form of , where , , and are constants, has exactly one solution when the discriminant, , is equal to zero. Substituting for and for in the expression and setting this expression equal to yields , or . Adding to each side of this equation yields . Taking the square root of each side of this equation yields . It’s given that is positive, so the value of is .

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