Maths Olympiad Prep

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Algebra Difficulty 5.5 AIME, harder Prove it Belarus

Let qRq \in \mathbb{R}. There are 10 distinct real numbers on the blackboard. Alex writes the following three lines of numbers:

1. In the first line Alex writes down every number of the form aba-b, where a,ba, b are two (not necessarily distinct) numbers from the board;

2. In the second line Alex writes down every number of the form qabqab, where a,ba, b are two (not necessarily distinct) numbers from the first line;

3. In the third line Alex writes down every number of the form a2+b2c2d2a^2 + b^2 - c^2 - d^2, where a,b,c,da, b, c, d are four (not necessarily distinct) numbers from the first line.

Determine all values of qq such that, regardless of the numbers on the board, every number in the second line is also a number in the third line.

(IMO-2017 Shortlist, Problem A2)

Solution

2. See IMO-2017 Shortlist, Problem A2.

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