maths problem

i was looking for puzzles not math... im too lazy...

Originally posted by royalchicken
Nicely done. I suppose you tried a = 1, noticed it gives (x-1)^2, and saw that that gives the (horizontal) tangent you need, no differentiating required, because you Picked Your Battles 😉?

Originally posted by angie88
actually, I found out that the incline in point P is 2a-2.
then I used something else (I don't even know what it's called in german... don't ask me in english 😛) and came to the conclusion
a-1=2a-2
the rest is obvious... so no, that was not my method 😛
Angie 😀

I am not familiar with ax? notation, but assuming ? is the placeholder for the power of x, I found:

a = 1/(? - 1)