Maths Olympiad Prep

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Algebra Difficulty 5.0 AIME, harder Prove it United States

Problem:

Suppose that aa and bb are real numbers such that the line y=ax+by=a x+b intersects the graph of y=x2y=x^{2} at two distinct points AA and BB. If the coordinates of the midpoint of ABA B are (5,101)(5,101), compute a+ba+b.

Solutions — 2

Solution 1

Solution:

Let A=(r,r2)A=\left(r, r^{2}\right) and B=(s,s2)B=\left(s, s^{2}\right). Since rr and ss are roots of x2axbx^{2}-a x-b with midpoint 55, r+s=10=ar+s=10=a (where the last equality follows by Vieta's formula).

Now, as rs=b-r s=b (Vieta's formula), observe that

202=r2+s2=(r+s)22rs=100+2b. 202=r^{2}+s^{2}=(r+s)^{2}-2 r s=100+2 b.

This means b=51b=51, so the answer is 10+51=6110+51=61.

Solution 2

Solution:

As in the previous solution, let A=(r,r2)A=\left(r, r^{2}\right) and B=(s,s2)B=\left(s, s^{2}\right) and note r+s=10=ar+s=10=a.

Fixing a=10a=10, the yy-coordinate of the midpoint is 5050 when b=0b=0 (and changing bb shifts the line up or down by its value). So, increasing bb by 5151 will make the midpoint have yy-coordinate 50+51=10150+51=101, so the answer is 10+51=6110+51=61.

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Source: MathNet, licensed CC-BY-4.0. Statement reproduced verbatim; metadata (topic, difficulty) added by this project.