Maths Olympiad Prep

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, 2020

Geometry Difficulty 6.1 National Olympiad Prove it United States

Problem:
Let S={(x,y)x>0,y>0,x+y<200S=\{(x, y) \mid x>0, y>0, x+y<200, and x,yZ}x, y \in \mathbb{Z}\}. Find the number of parabolas P\mathcal{P} with vertex VV that satisfy the following conditions:
- P\mathcal{P} goes through both (100,100)(100,100) and at least one point in SS,
- VV has integer coordinates, and
- P\mathcal{P} is tangent to the line x+y=0x+y=0 at VV.

Solution

Solution:
We perform the linear transformation (x,y)(xy,x+y)(x, y) \rightarrow (x-y, x+y), which has the reverse transformation (a,b)(a+b2,ba2)(a, b) \rightarrow \left(\frac{a+b}{2}, \frac{b-a}{2}\right). Then the equivalent problem has a parabola has a vertical axis of symmetry, goes through A=(0,200)A=(0,200), a point B=(u,v)B=(u, v) in
S={(x,y)x+y>0,x>y,y<200,x,yZ, and xymod2} S' = \{(x, y) \mid x+y>0, x>y, y<200, x, y \in \mathbb{Z}, \text{ and } x \equiv y \bmod 2\}
and a new vertex W=(w,0)W=(w, 0) on y=0y=0 with ww even. Then (1uw)2=v200\left(1-\frac{u}{w}\right)^2=\frac{v}{200}. The only way the RHS can be the square of a rational number is if uw=v10\frac{u}{w}=\frac{v'}{10} where v=2(10v)2v=2\left(10-v'\right)^2. Since vv is even, we can find conditions so that u,wu, w are both even:
v{1,3,7,9}(2v)u, 20wv{2,4,6,8}vu, 10wv=52u, 4w \begin{aligned} v' \in \{1,3,7,9\} & \Longrightarrow (2 v')|u,\ 20|w \\ v' \in \{2,4,6,8\} & \Longrightarrow v'|u,\ 10|w \\ v'=5 & \Longrightarrow 2|u,\ 4|w \end{aligned}
It follows that any parabola that goes through v{3,7,9}v' \in \{3,7,9\} has a point with v=1v'=1, and any parabola that goes through v{4,6,8}v' \in \{4,6,8\} has a point with v=2v'=2. We then count the following parabolas:
- The number of parabolas going through (2k,162)(2k, 162), where kk is a nonzero integer with 2k<162|2k|<162.
- The number of parabolas going through (2k,128)(2k, 128) not already counted, where kk is a nonzero integer with 2k<128|2k|<128. (Note that this passes through (k,162)(k, 162).)
- The number of parabolas going through (2k,50)(2k, 50) not already counted, where kk is a nonzero integer with 2k<50|2k|<50. (Note that this passes through (2k5,162)\left(\frac{2k}{5}, 162\right), and any overlap must have been counted in the first case.)
The number of solutions is then
2(80+1264+4525)=264 2\left(80+\frac{1}{2} \cdot 64+\frac{4}{5} \cdot 25\right)=264

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Source: MathNet, licensed CC-BY-4.0. Statement reproduced verbatim; metadata (topic, difficulty) added by this project.