Maths Olympiad Prep

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Algebra Difficulty 5.0 AIME Prove it United States

Problem:
If the system of equations
x+y=99xy=c \begin{aligned} & |x+y|=99 \\ & |x-y|=c \end{aligned}
has exactly two real solutions (x,y)(x, y), find the value of cc.

Solution

Solution:
If c<0c<0, there are no solutions. If c>0c>0 then we have four possible systems of linear equations given by x+y=±99x+y= \pm 99, xy=±cx-y= \pm c, giving four solutions (x,y)(x, y). So we must have c=0c=0, and then we do get two solutions (x=yx=y, so they must both equal ±99/2\pm 99 / 2).

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