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Algebra Difficulty 6.1 National olympiad Prove it Czech Republic

In the domain of non-negative real numbers solve the system of equations
3x+5y+7z=7z,3y+5z+7x=7x,3z+5x+7y=7y. \begin{align*} \lfloor 3x + 5y + 7z \rfloor &= 7z, \\ \lfloor 3y + 5z + 7x \rfloor &= 7x, \\ \lfloor 3z + 5x + 7y \rfloor &= 7y. \end{align*}

Solution

The first equation of the given system is fulfilled if and only if the following two conditions are satisfied:
▷ the number 7z7z is integer,
7z3x+5y+7z<7z+17z \leq 3x + 5y + 7z < 7z + 1, i.e. 3x+5y[0,1)3x + 5y \in [0, 1).

Similarly, the second and third equations are fulfilled if and only if the numbers 7x7x and 7y7y are integers and 3y+5z3y + 5z, 3z+5x[0,1)3z + 5x \in [0, 1).

Now consider any triple of non-negative numbers (x,y,z)(x, y, z), which is the solution to the problem. The inequalities z0z \geq 0 and 3z+5x<13z + 5x < 1 imply 5x<15x < 1, whence 7x<7/5<27x < 7/5 < 2. This means that non-negative integer 7x7x is equal to one of the numbers 00 or 11, i.e., x{0,1/7}x \in \{0, 1/7\}. Similarly, y,z{0,1/7}y, z \in \{0, 1/7\}.

At this point we have only 23=82^3 = 8 triples (x,y,z)(x, y, z), which are candidates to solve the problem, so we could test them individually. However, this testing can be avoided by noting that if any two of the numbers x,y,zx, y, z were equal to 1/71/7, one of the expressions 3x+5y3x+5y, 3y+5z3y+5z, 3z+5x3z+5x would be 8/78/7, which is greater than 11, and that is a contradiction. So, at most one of the numbers x,y,zx, y, z is equal to 1/71/7 and the others are equal to zero. But then each of the three (non-negative) expressions 3x+5y3x + 5y, 3y+5z3y + 5z, 3z+5x3z + 5x is at most equal to 5/75/7, so the conditions stated in the beginning of the solution as equivalence are satisfied and all such triples are solutions.

Conclusion. The problem has exactly 44 solutions
(x,y,z){(0,0,0),(17,0,0),(0,17,0),(0,0,17)}. (x, y, z) \in \left\{ (0, 0, 0), \left(\frac{1}{7}, 0, 0\right), \left(0, \frac{1}{7}, 0\right), \left(0, 0, \frac{1}{7}\right) \right\}.

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