AlgebraDifficulty 5.9AIME, harderProve itCzech-Polish-Slovak Mathematical Match
Determine all triples (x,y,z) of positive numbers satisfying the system of equations 2x32y42z5=2y(x2+1)−(z2+1),=3z(y2+1)−2(x2+1),=4x(z2+1)−3(y2+1).
Solution
For any integer k≥3 and any x≥0 we have 2xk≥[(k−1)x−(k−2)](x2+1).(0) To see this, observe that, by AM-GM inequality, xk+xk+(k−3) timesx+x+⋯+x≥(k−1)x3, and add it to (k−2)(x2−2x+1)≥0. Note that we have equality if and only if x=1. Therefore, for x, y, z satisfying the system of equations, we have 2y(x2+1)−(z2+1)3z(y2+1)−2(x2+1)4x(z2+1)−3(y2+1)≥(2x−1)(x2+1),≥(3y−2)(y2+1),≥(4z−3)(z2+1), or 2(y−x)(x2+1)+(x−z)(x+z)≥0,3(z−y)(y2+1)+2(y−x)(y+x)≥0,4(x−z)(z2+1)+3(z−y)(z+y)≥0.(1) Now suppose x≥max{y,z}. Then from the second inequality of (1) we infer that y≤z and 2(y−x)(x2+1)+(x−z)(x+z)≤(z−x)(2(x2+1)−(x+z))≤(z−x)(2x2−2x+2)≤0, which, by the first inequality in (1), implies x=y=z.
If y≥max{x,z}, then z≤x by the third inequality in (1) and 3(z−y)(y2+1)+2(y−x)(y+x)≤(x−y)(3(y2+1)−2y−2x)≤(x−y)(3y2−4y+3)≤0, hence, by the second inequality in (1), x=y=z. Finally, if z≥max{x,y}, then x≤y by the first estimate in (1) and, as previously, 4(x−z)(z2+1)+3(z−y)(z+y)≤(y−z)(4z2−6z+4)≤0, which again implies x=y=z. Thus we have equality in (0) and hence x=y=z=1. We easily check that this is the solution to the system.
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