Maths Olympiad Prep

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Algebra Difficulty 5.2 AIME, harder Prove it Bulgaria

Find all real numbers aa and bb such that the system
\begin{array}{l@{\quad}l@{\quad}c} \text{system} & \left\{ \begin{array}{l} x + a = y + b \\ x^2 - a = 2y \end{array} \right. & \text{has unique solution } (x_0, y_0) \text{ and it satisfies the equality} \\ & x_0^2 + y_0^2 = 1025. \end{array}

Solution

The given system is equivalent to
x22x+2b3a=0x+a=y+b \left| \begin{array}{l} x^2 - 2x + 2b - 3a = 0 \\ x + a = y + b \end{array} \right.
It has a unique solution (x0,y0)(x_0, y_0) if the quadratic equation x22x+2b3a=0x^2 - 2x + 2b - 3a = 0 has a unique root x0x_0. This means that D=12b+3a=0D = 1 - 2b + 3a = 0 and x0=1x_0 = 1. The condition x02+y02=1025x_0^2 + y_0^2 = 1025 gives y02=1024y_0^2 = 1024, i.e. y0=±2y_0 = \pm 2. For y0=2y_0 = -2 we get a=x022y0=5a = x_0^2 - 2y_0 = 5 and b=x0+ay0=8b = x_0 + a - y_0 = 8, and for y0=2y_0 = 2 we get a=x022y0=3a = x_0^2 - 2y_0 = -3 and b=x0+ay0=4b = x_0 + a - y_0 = -4.

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