Maths Olympiad Prep

Library / /28 of 48

Algebra Difficulty 6.1 National olympiad Prove it Greece

Determine all the pairs of real numbers (x,y)(x, y), which are solutions of the system:
{(x2+y2)2xy(x+y)2=19xy=1 \begin{cases} (x^2 + y^2)^2 - xy(x+y)^2 = 19 \\ |x-y| = 1 \end{cases}

Solution

Performing some manipulation into the first equation we find:
{(x2+y2)2xy(x+y)2=19xy=1}{x4+2x2y2+y4x3y2x2y2xy3=19xy=1}{x4+y4x3yxy3=19xy=1}{(xy)(x3y3)=19xy=1}{(xy)2(x2+xy+y2)=19xy=1}{x2+xy+y2=19xy=1}. \left\{ \begin{array}{l} (x^2 + y^2)^2 - xy(x+y)^2 = 19 \\ |x-y| = 1 \end{array} \right\} \Leftrightarrow \left\{ \begin{array}{l} x^4 + 2x^2y^2 + y^4 - x^3y - 2x^2y^2 - xy^3 = 19 \\ |x-y| = 1 \end{array} \right\} \Leftrightarrow \\ \left\{ \begin{array}{l} x^4 + y^4 - x^3y - xy^3 = 19 \\ |x-y| = 1 \end{array} \right\} \Leftrightarrow \left\{ \begin{array}{l} (x-y)(x^3-y^3) = 19 \\ |x-y| = 1 \end{array} \right\} \Leftrightarrow \left\{ \begin{array}{l} (x-y)^2(x^2+xy+y^2) = 19 \\ |x-y| = 1 \end{array} \right\} \\ \Leftrightarrow \left\{ \begin{array}{l} x^2 + xy + y^2 = 19 \\ |x-y| = 1 \end{array} \right\}.
Thus we have the following cases:
{xy=1x2+xy+y2=19}{y=x1x2+xy+y2=19}{y=x1x2+x2x+(x1)2=19}{y=x13x23x18=0}{y=x1x=3 or x=2}(x,y)=(3,2) or (x,y)=(2,3). \bullet \quad \left\{ \begin{array}{l} x - y = 1 \\ x^2 + xy + y^2 = 19 \end{array} \right\} \Leftrightarrow \left\{ \begin{array}{l} y = x - 1 \\ x^2 + xy + y^2 = 19 \end{array} \right\} \Leftrightarrow \left\{ \begin{array}{l} y = x - 1 \\ x^2 + x^2 - x + (x-1)^2 = 19 \end{array} \right\} \\ \left\{ \begin{array}{l} y = x - 1 \\ 3x^2 - 3x - 18 = 0 \end{array} \right\} \Leftrightarrow \left\{ \begin{array}{l} y = x - 1 \\ x = 3 \text{ or } x = -2 \end{array} \right\} \Leftrightarrow (x,y) = (3,2) \text{ or } (x,y) = (-2,-3).
{xy=1x2+xy+y2=19}{y=x+1x2+xy+y2=19}{y=x+1x2+x2+x+(x+1)2=19}{y=x+13x2+3x18=0}{y=x+1x=3 or x=2}(x,y)=(3,2) or (x,y)=(2,3). \bullet \quad \left\{ \begin{array}{l} x - y = -1 \\ x^2 + xy + y^2 = 19 \end{array} \right\} \Leftrightarrow \left\{ \begin{array}{l} y = x + 1 \\ x^2 + xy + y^2 = 19 \end{array} \right\} \Leftrightarrow \left\{ \begin{array}{l} y = x + 1 \\ x^2 + x^2 + x + (x+1)^2 = 19 \end{array} \right\} \\ \left\{ \begin{array}{l} y = x + 1 \\ 3x^2 + 3x - 18 = 0 \end{array} \right\} \Leftrightarrow \left\{ \begin{array}{l} y = x + 1 \\ x = -3 \text{ or } x = 2 \end{array} \right\} \Leftrightarrow (x,y) = (-3,-2) \text{ or } (x,y) = (2,3).

Want a route through all this instead of an archive? The track puts 2,000 problems in a working order, from AMC 10 level to the IMO shortlist.

Source: MathNet, licensed CC-BY-4.0. Statement and solution reproduced as published; topic and difficulty added by this site.