Maths Olympiad Prep

Library / /67 of 264

Algebra Difficulty 5.2 AIME, harder Prove it Romania

Find all positive integers nn for which there exists three complex roots of order nn of the unity, not necessarily different, adding up to 11.

Solution

If nn is odd, then 1-1, 11, 11 are three complex roots of order nn of the unity, adding up to 11.

On the other hand, if xx, yy, zCz \in \mathbb{C}, xn=yn=zn=1x^n = y^n = z^n = 1 and x+y+z=1x + y + z = 1, then x=y=z|x| = |y| = |z|, hence x+y+z=1/x+1/y+1/z=1\overline{x} + \overline{y} + \overline{z} = 1/x + 1/y + 1/z = 1, which leads to xy+xz+yz=xyzxy + xz + yz = xyz.

Replacing z=1xyz = 1 - x - y gives (x+y)(1x)(1y)=0(x + y)(1 - x)(1 - y) = 0, whence one of the numbers xx, yy, zz is 11 and the other two are opposite.

In the case nn = odd, there are no opposite roots, so the final answer is: nn = even.

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.