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Algebra Difficulty 4.5 AIME Find the answer United States

Real numbers aa, bb, and cc have arithmetic mean 00. The arithmetic mean of a2a^2, b2b^2, and c2c^2 is 1010. What is the arithmetic mean of abab, acac, and bcbc?

Pick one

Solution

The given information implies that a+b+c=0a + b + c = 0 and a2+b2+c2=30a^2 + b^2 + c^2 = 30. Then
0=(a+b+c)2=a2+b2+c2+2ab+2ac+2bc=30+2(ab+ac+bc). 0 = (a + b + c)^2 = a^2 + b^2 + c^2 + 2ab + 2ac + 2bc = 30 + 2(ab + ac + bc).
Therefore 2(ab+ac+bc)=302(ab + ac + bc) = -30 and the requested arithmetic mean is ab+ac+bc3=153=5\frac{ab+ac+bc}{3} = \frac{-15}{3} = -5.

Consider the system of equations implied by the conditions of the problem,
a+b+c=0a2+b2+c2=30, \begin{aligned} a + b + c &= 0 \\ a^2 + b^2 + c^2 &= 30, \end{aligned}
and suppose that a=0a = 0. Then b+c=0b + c = 0, so b=cb = -c, and substituting into the second equation gives 2b2=302b^2 = 30, from which b=±15b = \pm\sqrt{15} and c=15c = \mp\sqrt{15}. If one assumes that the requested arithmetic mean is determined by the given information, independent of the value of aa, then
ab+ac+bc3=0+015153=5. \frac{ab + ac + bc}{3} = \frac{0 + 0 - \sqrt{15} \cdot \sqrt{15}}{3} = -5.

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