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Algebra Difficulty 5.3 AIME, harder Prove it Greece

Prove that there exist infinitely many integers x,y,zx, y, z for which the sum of the digits in the decimal representation of 4x4+y4z2+4xyz4x^4 + y^4 - z^2 + 4xyz is at most 2.

Solution

This is an easy problem with many solutions. We rewrite
4x4+y4z2+4xyz=(4x4+y4+4x2y2)(4x2y2+z24xyz)=(2x2+y2)2(2xyz)2=(2x2+y22xy+z)(2x2+y2+2xyz) \begin{aligned} 4x^4 + y^4 - z^2 + 4xyz &= (4x^4 + y^4 + 4x^2y^2) - (4x^2y^2 + z^2 - 4xyz) \\ &= (2x^2 + y^2)^2 - (2xy - z)^2 \\ &= (2x^2 + y^2 - 2xy + z)(2x^2 + y^2 + 2xy - z) \end{aligned}
The two factors A=2x2+y22xy+zA = 2x^2 + y^2 - 2xy + z and B=2x2+y2+2xyzB = 2x^2 + y^2 + 2xy - z add up to A+B=4x2+2y2A + B = 4x^2 + 2y^2. If we choose the values of xx and yy so that A=4x2=452n+2A = 4x^2 = 4 \cdot 5^{2n+2} and B=2y2=222nB = 2y^2 = 2 \cdot 2^{2n}, then the product will become AB=2102n+2AB = 2 \cdot 10^{2n+2} and the sum of the digits will equal 2.

Summarizing, we pick an integer n1n \ge 1 and set x=5n+1x = 5^{n+1} and y=2ny = 2^n. The desired equation A=4x2A = 4x^2 is equivalent to 2x2+y22xy+z=4x22x^2 + y^2 - 2xy + z = 4x^2, and hence
z=2x2+2xyy2=252n+2+10n+14n. z = 2x^2 + 2xy - y^2 = 2 \cdot 5^{2n+2} + 10^{n+1} - 4^n.
Note that zz indeed is a positive integer. As the described choice of x,y,zx, y, z then yields
4x4+y4z2+4xyz=2102n+2, 4x^4 + y^4 - z^2 + 4xyz = 2 \cdot 10^{2n+2},
the proof is complete.

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