Maths Olympiad Prep

Library / /34 of 69

Algebra Difficulty 6.0 AIME, harder Prove it Mongolia

aa, bb and cc are non-zero real numbers such that a+bc=b+ca=c+ab\frac{a+b}{c} = \frac{b+c}{a} = \frac{c+a}{b}.
(1) Prove that a3+b3+c30a^3 + b^3 + c^3 \neq 0.
(2) Determine all possible values of the expression (a+b)(b+c)(c+a)a3+b3+c3\frac{(a+b)(b+c)(c+a)}{a^3 + b^3 + c^3}.

Solution

Answer: F=1/3,8/3F = -1/3, 8/3.
Let us denote s=a+b+cs = a + b + c. Then, under the given condition, we have sc=sa=sb\frac{s}{c} = \frac{s}{a} = \frac{s}{b}.
(1) If s=0s = 0, then a3+b3+c3=(a+b+c)(a2+b2+c2abbcca)+3abc=3abc0a^3+b^3+c^3 = (a+b+c)(a^2+b^2+c^2-ab-bc-ca)+3abc = 3abc \neq 0. If s0s \neq 0, then a=b=ca = b = c. Hence a3+b3+c3=3a30a^3 + b^3 + c^3 = 3a^3 \neq 0. This completes the proof of the first part.

(2) Since a3+b3+c30a^3 + b^3 + c^3 \neq 0, the function
F(a,b,c)=(a+b)(b+c)(c+a)a3+b3+c3 F(a, b, c) = \frac{(a+b)(b+c)(c+a)}{a^3 + b^3 + c^3}
is well defined. Given F(1,1,2)=1/3F(1, 1, -2) = -1/3 and F(1,1,1)=8/3F(1, 1, 1) = 8/3, the values 13-\frac{1}{3} and 83\frac{8}{3} are attained because 1+12=01+1-2=0 and 1+1+101+1+1 \neq 0. Now we show there are no other values of FF.
Indeed, if s=0s = 0, then F=(c)(a)(b)3abc=13F = \frac{(-c)(-a)(-b)}{3abc} = -\frac{1}{3}. If s0s \neq 0, then a=b=ca = b = c, thus F=8a33a3=83F = \frac{8a^3}{3a^3} = \frac{8}{3}.

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 and solution reproduced as published; topic and difficulty added by this site.