Maths Olympiad Prep

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Algebra Difficulty 5.9 AIME, harder Prove it Slovenia

Find all triples of real numbers (x,y,z)(x, y, z) that satisfy the system of equations
x2+y2+4z2=6y4,2xy4xz+4yz=y2+5. \begin{aligned} x^2 + y^2 + 4z^2 &= 6y - 4, \\ 2xy - 4xz + 4yz &= y^2 + 5. \end{aligned}

Solution

Subtracting the second equality from the first we notice that the left side is a square of a trinomial. Indeed, we get
(xy+2z)2=y2+6y9, (x - y + 2z)^2 = -y^2 + 6y - 9,
which can be rearranged into
(xy+2z)2+(y3)2=0. (x - y + 2z)^2 + (y - 3)^2 = 0.
Since xx, yy and zz are real numbers the expressions in the brackets must be 0. So, y=3y = 3 and x=y2z=32zx = y - 2z = 3 - 2z. Plugging this into the first equation we get 2z23z+1=02z^2 - 3z + 1 = 0, or (2z1)(z1)=0(2z - 1)(z - 1) = 0. We obtain the same by plugging y=3y = 3 and x=32zx = 3 - 2z into the second equation. So, z=1z = 1 or z=12z = \frac{1}{2}. The solutions are (1,3,1)(1, 3, 1) and (2,3,12)(2, 3, \frac{1}{2}).

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