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Belarusian Mathematical Olympiad

Algebra Difficulty 5.0 AIME, harder Prove it Belarus

The positive integers aa, bb and cc satisfy the equality
a3b3+b3c3+c3a3=abc(a3+b3+c3). a^3 b^3 + b^3 c^3 + c^3 a^3 = abc(a^3 + b^3 + c^3).
Prove that the product of some two of these numbers is the square of a positive integer.

Solution

Note that
(ab−c2)(ca−b2)(bc−a2)=(a2bc−ab3−ac3+b2c2)(bc−a2)==a2b2c2−ab4c−abc4+b3c3−a4bc+a3b3+a3c3−a2b2c2==a3b3+b3c3+a3c3−a4bc−a4bc−abc4=a3b3+b3c3+a3c3−abc(a3+b3+c3). \begin{align*} (ab - c^2)(ca - b^2)(bc - a^2) &= (a^2bc - ab^3 - ac^3 + b^2c^2)(bc - a^2) = \\ &= a^2b^2c^2 - ab^4c - abc^4 + b^3c^3 - a^4bc + a^3b^3 + a^3c^3 - a^2b^2c^2 = \\ &= a^3b^3 + b^3c^3 + a^3c^3 - a^4bc - a^4bc - abc^4 = a^3b^3 + b^3c^3 + a^3c^3 - abc(a^3 + b^3 + c^3). \end{align*}
Therefore the equality a3b3+b3c3+c3a3=abc(a3+b3+c3)a^3b^3 + b^3c^3 + c^3a^3 = abc(a^3 + b^3 + c^3) is equivalent to
(ab−c2)(ca−b2)(bc−a2)=0, (ab - c^2)(ca - b^2)(bc - a^2) = 0,
whence it follows that either ab=c2ab = c^2 or ca=b2ca = b^2 or bc=a2bc = a^2, as required.

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