Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-year-1-of-the-natural-sciences-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2013/paper-1/5/b/solution

Substitution into the circle gives , or since . Necessarily , and each admissible fixes a unique .
On , is strictly increasing from a negative value to a positive value, giving one root. On , the equation is . This function is strictly convex, positive at the two interval ends and negative at , giving exactly two roots.
There are none on the remaining possible interval . Put ; then , so
Hence the number of simultaneous real solutions is , as marked in the preceding graph.

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