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The sum of a positive number and its reciprocal is (\frac{5}{2}). What can the number be?

Answer and explanation

Correct answer: (2) or (\frac{1}{2})

The direct answer is C: the number can be 2 or \\(1/2\\). Let the positive number be x. Its reciprocal is \\(1/x\\), so \\(x+1/x=5/2\\). Since x is positive, multiply by 2x: \\(2x^2+2=5x\\), hence \\(2x^2-5x+2=0\\). Factoring gives \\( (2x-1)(x-2)=0\\), so x=1/2 or x=2. Both are positive and checking gives \\(2+1/2=5/2\\). Option C is correct. Option A gives 1+1=2, not 5/2. Option B gives 3+1/3=10/3, not 5/2. Option D gives 4+1/4=17/4, also incorrect. The two answers naturally come as reciprocal pairs, because replacing x by 1/x does not change the sum. Remember to reject x=0 before multiplying, although it is already excluded because the reciprocal is undefined.

Related tags

Quadratic EquationsReciprocalApplication

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