Closest Approach to a Hyperbola

Problem

In the coordinate plane, let A(a,a)A(a, a) be a fixed point and let PP be a moving point on the graph of y=1xy = \dfrac{1}{x} for x>0x > 0. If the shortest distance between PP and AA is 222\sqrt{2}, find all possible values of the real number aa.

Answer

Solution

Difficulty6/10
TopicsQuadratic Equations, Substitution, algebra, analytic geometry, Casework

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