Suppose m x </msub> , M x </msub> , m y </

Ellen Chang

Ellen Chang

Answered question

2022-07-11

Suppose m x , M x , m y , M y R are known and x l , x h , y l , y h R are unknown. Does the simultaneous system
x l + x h = y l + y h m x x l x h M x m y y l y h M y
have a unique solution ( x l , x h , y l , y h )

Answer & Explanation

vrtuljakc6

vrtuljakc6

Beginner2022-07-12Added 16 answers

No, the solution is not unique, unless you have special configurations of the given bounds. Also, this is more of an exercise in basic real analysis than linaer algebra.
If a solution exists at all, we have
2 m x x l + x h 2 M x
and
2 m y y l + y h 2 M y
and hence it must be true that
S = [ 2 m x , 2 M x ] [ 2 m y , 2 M y ] .
I'll ignore the degenerate cases where M x m x and/or M y m y , they don't bring anything new to the table (and fall under the special configurations I mentioned above), so I assume that the intervals whose intersection S is are proper intervals with positive length.
S is an interval, but it might be degenerate and just a point. Those are the 2 cases 2 m x < 2 M x = 2 m y < 2 M y and 2 m y < 2 M y = 2 m x < 2 M x. In the first case, it must be that x l + x h = 2 M x = 2 m y = y l + y h and thus x l = x h = M x = m y = y l = y h . The second case has similiar consequences, again we get x l = x h = y l = y h .
But again, this is a special configuration of the given bounds.
If | S | > 1, then S is a proper interval S = [ a , b ] with a < b. In this case, there are infinitely many s ( a , b ) and for each of them x l = x h = y l = y h = s 2 is a solution. That's because
s ( a , b ) [ a , b ] = S [ 2 m x , 2 M x ]
and hence
m x s 2 M x ,
and the same is true for m y / M y .
Moreover, because we chose s from the open interval ( a , b ), we do not have equality in either side of the inequality above, so we get
m x < s 2 < M x
That means s 2 is an inner point of the interval [ m x , M y ] and so ther exists a δ s > 0 such that
m x s 2 δ s < s 2 + δ s M x .
Now that means in the above solution x l = x h = y l = y h = s 2 we can replace x l , x h with infintely many other pairs
x l = s 2 δ , x h = s 2 + δ
for any 0 < δ δ s
Absolutely the same argument can be made for y l , y h
So unless you have initial bounds m x , M x , m y , M y that trivially force your unknowns to be either bound of the interval, you will have infinitely many solutions, also with infinitely many of them such that x l x h and y l y h .
To me it looks like what happens often when dealing with inequalities. You come to a point where you see something that would have nice consequences if it could be proven. But unfortunately, your system does generally not have a unique solution and it is not even close.

Do you have a similar question?

Recalculate according to your conditions!

Ask your question.
Get an expert answer.

Let our experts help you. Answer in as fast as 15 minutes.

Didn't find what you were looking for?