please help anybody algebra question im stuck :(

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I was working through some advanced algebra questions when I stumbled across a question I couldn't quite figure out.

What is the smallest distance between the origin and a point on the graph of \(y=\dfrac{1}{\sqrt{2}}\left(x^2-3\right)\)?

I got sqrt2.5 but that was incorrect :(

Thank you for your help!

Guest Jul 11, 2020

Guest · Answer 1 · 2020-07-11T08:40:08

Use https://www.desmos.com/calculator to graph it.

It looks like the least distance from the origin to the curve is where

the parabola crosses the x-axis, at about a shade less than +4.5.

Guest · Answer 2 · 2020-07-11T10:03:34

We need to minimize \(\sqrt{x^2 + \frac{1}{\sqrt{2}} (x^2 - 3)}\)

Taking the derivative and setting it to 0, the minimum value is sqrt(3) at x = 1.