Maths Olympiad Prep

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Number theory Difficulty 5.5 AIME, harder Prove it Saudi Arabia

Determine all triples (a,b,c)(a, b, c) of integers such that
a3+b3+c3=25(abc+a2b+b2c+c2a). a^3 + b^3 + c^3 = 25(abc + a^2b + b^2c + c^2a).

Solution

We will show that there is no solution other than the trivial a=b=c=0a = b = c = 0. For any other triple, we can write a=dxa = dx, b=dyb = dy, c=dzc = dz, where gcd(x,y,z)=1\gcd(x, y, z) = 1 and dd is a positive integer. After dividing out dd, we obtain the same equation but for xx, yy, and zz. We will demonstrate that each of xx, yy, and zz must be divisible by 33, which leads to a contradiction.

Assume first that none of xx, yy, or zz is divisible by 33. Then x2y2z21(mod3)x^2 \equiv y^2 \equiv z^2 \equiv 1 \pmod{3}, which implies that
x+y+zxyz+y+z+x(mod3), x + y + z \equiv xyz + y + z + x \pmod{3},
meaning xyz3(mod3)xyz \equiv 3 \pmod{3}, a contradiction. Thus, we may assume that, for example, zz is divisible by 33. Then 33 also divides x3+y325x2yx^3 + y^3 - 25x^2y. Note that we always have 3x3x3 \mid x^3 - x, 3y3y3 \mid y^3 - y thus we get 3x+y(1x2)3 \mid x + y(1 - x^2). Now, if 33 does not divide xx, then it would not divide y(1x2)y(1 - x^2), which is a contradiction since 31x23 \mid 1 - x^2. Therefore, 3x3 \mid x, and consequently also yy, as required. \square

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