Maths Olympiad Prep

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Algebra Difficulty 5.3 AIME, harder Prove it United States

Problem:

Let SS be the locus of all points (x,y)(x, y) in the first quadrant such that xt+y1t=1\frac{x}{t}+\frac{y}{1-t}=1 for some tt with 0<t<10<t<1. Find the area of SS.

Solution

Solution:

Solving for tt in the given equation, we get t2+(yx1)t+x=0t^{2}+(y-x-1) t+x=0. Using the quadratic equation, we get
t=(x+1y)±(yx1)24x2. t=\frac{(x+1-y) \pm \sqrt{(y-x-1)^{2}-4 x}}{2}.
For all valid combinations of (x,y)(x, y), tt is positive and less than 11 (this is easy to see by inspection). All valid combinations of (x,y)(x, y) are those that make (yx1)24x0(y-x-1)^{2}-4 x \geq 0.

Solving for yy in the equation (yx1)24x=0(y-x-1)^{2}-4 x=0 yields
y2(2x+2)y+(x1)2=0    y=(x+1)±2x. y^{2}-(2 x+2) y+(x-1)^{2}=0 \implies y=(x+1) \pm 2 \sqrt{x}.
In the original equation, it is given that xt+y1t=1\frac{x}{t}+\frac{y}{1-t}=1, and 0<t<10<t<1. This implies that x,y<1x, y<1. Then the only possible y<1y<1 that satisfies (yx1)24x=0(y-x-1)^{2}-4 x=0 is y=x+12xy=x+1-2 \sqrt{x}.

Then to satisfy the inequality (yx1)24x0(y-x-1)^{2}-4 x \geq 0, we must have yx+12xy \leq x+1-2 \sqrt{x}. Recall that this is when 0<y<10<y<1. Hence we integrate in the interval [0,1][0,1]:
01x+12xdx=16. \int_{0}^{1} x+1-2 \sqrt{x} \, dx = \frac{1}{6}.

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