Maths Olympiad Prep

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, 2021

Algebra Difficulty 4.6 AIME Prove it Hong Kong

Find all real triples (a,b,c)(a, b, c) satisfying
(22a+1)(22b+2)(22c+8)=2a+b+c+5.(2^{2a} + 1)(2^{2b} + 2)(2^{2c} + 8) = 2^{a+b+c+5}.

Solution

The only solution is (a,b,c)=(0,12,32)(a, b, c) = \left(0, \frac{1}{2}, \frac{3}{2}\right).
Note that (2a1)20(2^a - 1)^2 \ge 0, (2b2)20(2^b - \sqrt{2})^2 \ge 0 and (2c8)20(2^c - \sqrt{8})^2 \ge 0. These yield
22a+12a+1, 2^{2a} + 1 \ge 2^{a+1},
22b+22b+32, 2^{2b} + 2 \ge 2^{b+\frac{3}{2}},
22c+82c+52. 2^{2c} + 8 \ge 2^{c+\frac{5}{2}}.
Multiplying these inequalities, we obtain
(22a+1)(22b+2)(22c+8)2a+b+c+1+32+52=2a+b+c+5. (2^{2a} + 1)(2^{2b} + 2)(2^{2c} + 8) \ge 2^{a+b+c+1+\frac{3}{2}+\frac{5}{2}} = 2^{a+b+c+5}.
This shows all equalities should hold. This means (a,b,c)=(0,12,32)(a, b, c) = \left(0, \frac{1}{2}, \frac{3}{2}\right).

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