Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-year-1-of-the-natural-sciences-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2001/paper-1/5/a/solution

For , the derivatives are and . Its unique stationary point is the global minimum . For , changes from positive to negative at , giving the global maximum . Their endpoint limits are
An intersection requires , and on both factors vanish only at . There and , proving a common tangent line . In fact,
because the two numerator factors always have the same sign. Thus the curves touch at without exchanging their order.
Figure 1.
Two logarithmic curves touching at their unique intersection
. Original common-axis plot marking the extrema and the shared tangent at . The curve lies above everywhere else on the positive axis. Details.

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