Maths Olympiad Prep

Library / /5 of 62

Algebra Difficulty 4.6 AIME Prove it Ukraine

Real nonzero numbers aa, bb, cc, dd satisfy the conditions a3+b3+c3+d3=0a^3 + b^3 + c^3 + d^3 = 0 and 1a+1b+1c+1d0\frac{1}{a} + \frac{1}{b} + \frac{1}{c} + \frac{1}{d} \neq 0. Prove that a+b+c+d0a + b + c + d \neq 0.

Solution

Solution. We will use method from contradiction. Suppose a+b+c+d=0a + b + c + d = 0. Thus a+b=(c+d)a + b = -(c + d). Therefore, we can obtain such equalities:
(a+b)3=(c+d)3a3+b3+3ab(a+b)=c3d33cd(c+d)3ab(a+b)+3cd(c+d)=03ab(c+d)3cd(a+b)=0ab(c+d)+cd(a+b)=0abc+abd+acd+bcd=0. (a + b)^3 = -(c + d)^3 \Leftrightarrow a^3 + b^3 + 3ab(a + b) = -c^3 - d^3 - 3cd(c + d) \Leftrightarrow \\ 3ab(a + b) + 3cd(c + d) = 0 \Leftrightarrow -3ab(c + d) - 3cd(a + b) = 0 \Leftrightarrow \\ ab(c + d) + cd(a + b) = 0 \Leftrightarrow abc + abd + acd + bcd = 0.
That contradicts the conditions since:
1a+1b+1c+1d0abc+abd+acd+bcdabcd0abc+abd+acd+bcd0. \frac{1}{a} + \frac{1}{b} + \frac{1}{c} + \frac{1}{d} \neq 0 \Leftrightarrow \frac{abc + abd + acd + bcd}{abcd} \neq 0 \Leftrightarrow abc + abd + acd + bcd \neq 0.

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 reproduced verbatim; metadata (topic, difficulty) added by this project.