Maths Olympiad Prep

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Algebra Difficulty 5.6 AIME, harder Prove it Austria

Solve the following system of equations in the set of rational numbers:
(x2+1)3=y+1(y2+1)3=z+1(z2+1)3=x+1. \begin{aligned} (x^2 + 1)^3 &= y + 1 \\ (y^2 + 1)^3 &= z + 1 \\ (z^2 + 1)^3 &= x + 1. \end{aligned}

Solution

We first note that (0,0,0)(0, 0, 0) is obviously a solution of the system of equations. We will now show that there are no others.
Let x=pqx = \frac{p}{q} with relatively prime integer values of pp and qq and q>0q > 0. We then have
y=((pq)2+1)31=(p2+q2)3q6q6=p6+qQq6=rq6, y = \left( \left( \frac{p}{q} \right)^2 + 1 \right)^3 - 1 = \frac{(p^2 + q^2)^3 - q^6}{q^6} = \frac{p^6 + qQ}{q^6} = \frac{r}{q^6},
and this fraction cannot be simplified, since pp and qq are relatively prime. Further substitutions then yield z=sq36z = \frac{s}{q^{36}} and x=tq216x = \frac{t}{q^{216}}, and since these fractions similarly cannot be simplified, q216=q=1q^{216} = q = 1 follows. We see that xx (and also yy and zz) must be integers. For integer values not equal to 00, we have (x2+1)3>x2+1x+1(x^2 + 1)^3 > x^2 + 1 \ge x + 1, and since equality must hold if the three equations are multiplied, this yields a contradiction. We see that (0,0,0)(0, 0, 0) is indeed the only solution, as claimed. \square

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