Number theoryDifficulty 5.5AIME, harderProve itRomania
Find all the quadruples (a,b,c,d) of integers, so that a+b+c=2d and ab+bc+ca=d2.
Solution
If a≥b≥c≥0, then d≥0. From d2=ab+ac+bc≤a+b+c≤2a+2b+2c≤4d, at least one of the equalities being strict, follows d∈{0,1,2,3}.
Case I: d=0. Then a=b=c=0.
Case II: d=1. Then a+b+c=2 and ab+bc+ca=1, hence a=b=1, c=0.
Case III: d∈{2,3}. When d=2 we have the possibilities (2,1,1), (2,2,0), (3,1,0), (4,0,0), and for d=3 we have the possibilities (3,2,1), (3,3,0), (4,2,0), (4,1,1), (5,1,0), (6,0,0); none of them is convenient.
If at least one of the numbers is negative, then all are non-positive, and −a,−b,−c,−d verify the statement.
Finally, we get the solutions (0,0,0), (0,1,1), (1,0,1), (1,1,0), (0,−1,−1), (−1,0,−1), (−1,−1,0).
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