Maths Olympiad Prep

Library / /1 of 5

Number theory Difficulty 7.8 National olympiad, round 2 Prove it Netherlands

Find all quadruples (a,b,c,d)(a, b, c, d) of non-negative integers such that ab=2(1+cd)ab = 2(1 + cd) and there exists a non-degenerate triangle with sides of length aca - c, bdb - d, and c+dc + d.

Solution

Note that a>ca > c and b>db > d, as aca - c and bdb - d are sides of a non-degenerate triangle. So ac+1a \ge c + 1 and bd+1b \ge d + 1, as they are integers. Consider two cases: a>2ca > 2c and a2ca \le 2c.

Suppose that a>2ca > 2c. Then ab>2bc2c(d+1)=2cd+2cab > 2bc \ge 2c \cdot (d+1) = 2cd + 2c. We also have ab=2+2cdab = 2 + 2cd, so 2c<22c < 2, and therefore c=0c = 0. We deduce that ab=2ab = 2 and that there exists a non-degenerate triangle with sides aa, bdb-d, and dd. Therefore d1d \ge 1 and b>db > d, so b2b \ge 2. From ab=2ab = 2 it follows that a=1a = 1 and b=2b = 2, and therefore also d=1d = 1. Note that there exists a non-degenerate triangle with sides 11, 11, and 11, so the quadruple (1,2,0,1)(1, 2, 0, 1) is a solution.

Now suppose that a2ca \le 2c. By the triangle inequality, we have (ac)+(bd)>c+d(a-c) + (b-d) > c+d, so a+b>2(c+d)a+b > 2(c+d). As a2ca \le 2c, it follows that b>2db > 2d. As ac+1a \ge c+1, we have ab>(c+1)2d=2cd+2dab > (c+1) \cdot 2d = 2cd + 2d. On the other hand, we have ab=2+2cdab = 2+2cd, so 2d<22d < 2, and therefore d=0d = 0. Analogously to the previous case, we deduce that the only other solution is (2,1,1,0)(2, 1, 1, 0).

Therefore the only solutions are the quadruples (1,2,0,1)(1, 2, 0, 1) and (2,1,1,0)(2, 1, 1, 0).

Want a route through all this instead of an archive? The track puts 2,000 problems in a working order, from AMC 10 level to the IMO shortlist.

Source: MathNet, licensed CC-BY-4.0. Statement and solution reproduced as published; topic and difficulty added by this site.