Maths Olympiad Prep

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Geometry Difficulty 5.2 AIME, harder Find the answer United States

Problem:
Let (x1,y1),,(xk,yk)\left(x_{1}, y_{1}\right), \ldots,\left(x_{k}, y_{k}\right) be the distinct real solutions to the equation
(x2+y2)6=(x2y2)4=(2x36xy2)3 \left(x^{2}+y^{2}\right)^{6}=\left(x^{2}-y^{2}\right)^{4}=\left(2 x^{3}-6 x y^{2}\right)^{3}
Then i=1k(xi+yi)\sum_{i=1}^{k}\left(x_{i}+y_{i}\right) can be expressed as ab\frac{a}{b}, where aa and bb are relatively prime positive integers. Compute 100a+b100 a+b.

A number or a short expression. Fractions can be typed as 3/2, and spacing doesn't matter.

Solution

Solution:
Using polar coordinates, we can transform the problem to finding the intersections between r=cos2θr=\cos 2 \theta and r=2cos3θr=2 \cos 3 \theta. Drawing this out gives us a four-leaf clover and a large 3-leaf clover, which intersect at 7 points (one point being the origin). Note that since this graph is symmetric about the xx axis, we are only interested in finding the xx-coordinates, which is rcosθ=cos2θcosθ=2cos3θcosθr \cos \theta=\cos 2 \theta \cos \theta=2 \cos ^{3} \theta-\cos \theta.
Now note that all points of intersection satisfy
cos2θ=2cos3θ8cos3θ2cos2θ6cosθ+1=0. \cos 2 \theta=2 \cos 3 \theta \Longleftrightarrow 8 \cos ^{3} \theta-2 \cos ^{2} \theta-6 \cos \theta+1=0 .
Now, we want to compute the sum of 2cos3θcosθ2 \cos ^{3} \theta-\cos \theta over all values of cosθ\cos \theta that satisfy the above cubic. In other words, if the solutions for cosθ\cos \theta to the above cubic are a,ba, b, and cc, we want 2cyc 2a3a2 \sum_{\text {cyc }} 2 a^{3}-a, since each value for cosθ\cos \theta generates two solutions (symmetric about the xx-axis).
This is
cyc4a32a=cyca2+a12 \sum_{\mathrm{cyc}} 4 a^{3}-2 a=\sum_{\mathrm{cyc}} a^{2}+a-\frac{1}{2}
where we have used the fact that a3=a2+3a12a^{3}=a^{2}+3 a-\frac{1}{2}. By Vieta's formulas, a+b+c=14a+b+c=\frac{1}{4}, while
a2+b2+c2=(14)2+234=2516 a^{2}+b^{2}+c^{2}=\left(\frac{1}{4}\right)^{2}+2 \cdot \frac{3}{4}=\frac{25}{16}
Thus the final answer is 516\frac{5}{16}.

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