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Algebra Difficulty 4.3 AIME Prove it Japan

Suppose that 6 real numbers a,b,c,d,e,fa, b, c, d, e, f satisfy the following equations:
(a+1999)(b1999)(c+1999)+(d1999)(e+1999)(f1999)=1,(a+2000)(b2000)(c+2000)+(d2000)(e+2000)(f2000)=10,(a+2001)(b2001)(c+2001)+(d2001)(e+2001)(f2001)=100. \begin{aligned} & (a + 1999)(b - 1999)(c + 1999) + (d - 1999)(e + 1999)(f - 1999) = 1, \\ & (a + 2000)(b - 2000)(c + 2000) + (d - 2000)(e + 2000)(f - 2000) = 10, \\ & (a + 2001)(b - 2001)(c + 2001) + (d - 2001)(e + 2001)(f - 2001) = 100. \end{aligned}
Determine the value of the following quantity:
(a+2009)(b2009)(c+2009)+(d2009)(e+2009)(f2009). (a + 2009)(b - 2009)(c + 2009) + (d - 2009)(e + 2009)(f - 2009).

Solution

Let
A=a+2000A = a+2000, B=b2000B = b-2000, C=c+2000C = c+2000, D=d2000D = d-2000, E=e+2000E = e+2000, F=f2000F = f-2000,
and
P(x)=(A+x)(Bx)(C+x)+(Dx)(E+x)(Fx). P(x) = (A + x)(B - x)(C + x) + (D - x)(E + x)(F - x).
P(x)P(x) is a polynomial in xx, and the left-hand side of the 3 equations given for the problem equals P(1)P(-1), P(0)P(0) and P(1)P(1), respectively. The problem is asking to find the value P(9)P(9).

Since we have
(A+x)(Bx)(C+x)=x3+(terms with degree 2 or less),(Dx)(E+x)(Fx)=x3+(terms with degree 2 or less), \begin{aligned} (A + x)(B - x)(C + x) &= -x^3 + \text{(terms with degree 2 or less)}, \\ (D - x)(E + x)(F - x) &= x^3 + \text{(terms with degree 2 or less)}, \end{aligned}
we can represent P(x)P(x) in the form P(x)=px2+qx+rP(x) = px^2 + qx + r, with some real coefficients p,q,rp, q, r. From the fact that we have P(1)=1P(-1) = 1, P(0)=10P(0) = 10 and P(1)=100P(1) = 100 we obtain
pq+r=1,r=10,p+q+r=100. p - q + r = 1, \quad r = 10, \quad p + q + r = 100.
We can solve this simultaneous equations to get (p,q,r)=(81/2,99/2,10)(p, q, r) = (81/2, 99/2, 10), and conclude that
P(x)=812x2+992x+10. P(x) = \frac{81}{2}x^2 + \frac{99}{2}x + 10.
Substituting 99 for xx, we get
P(9)=81281+9929+10=3736 P(9) = \frac{81}{2} \cdot 81 + \frac{99}{2} \cdot 9 + 10 = 3736
for the answer.

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