Maths Olympiad Prep

Library / /9 of 29

Number theory Difficulty 5.3 AIME, harder Prove it Croatia

Find all pairs (x,y)(x, y) of integers such that x2(y1)+y2(x1)=1x^2(y - 1) + y^2(x - 1) = 1.

Solution

The given equation is equivalent to
x2yx2+xy2y2=1xy(x+y)(x2+y2)=1xy(x+y)((x+y)22xy)=1 \begin{aligned} x^2y - x^2 + xy^2 - y^2 &= 1 \\ xy(x + y) - (x^2 + y^2) &= 1 \\ xy(x + y) - ((x + y)^2 - 2xy) &= 1 \end{aligned}
If we put u=x+yu = x + y and v=xyv = xy we get the equation:
uv(u22v)=1 uv - (u^2 - 2v) = 1
from which follows uv+2v=u2+1uv + 2v = u^2 + 1, that is
v=u2+1u+2=u24+5u+2=u2+5u+2. v = \frac{u^2 + 1}{u + 2} = \frac{u^2 - 4 + 5}{u + 2} = u - 2 + \frac{5}{u + 2}.
Now we can see that u+2u + 2 has to be a divisor of 55, so we have four cases:
u+2=5u+2=1u+2=1u+2=55u+2=15u+2=55u+2=55u+2=1u=3u=1u=3u=7v=2v=2v=10v=10 \begin{array}{lcll} u + 2 = 5 & u + 2 = 1 & u + 2 = -1 & u + 2 = -5 \\ \frac{5}{u+2} = 1 & \frac{5}{u+2} = 5 & \frac{5}{u+2} = -5 & \frac{5}{u+2} = -1 \\ u = 3 & u = -1 & u = -3 & u = -7 \\ v = 2 & v = 2 & v = -10 & v = -10 \end{array}
From Viète's formulas we know that x,yx, y are the solutions of quadratic equations:
z23z+2=0z2+z+2=0z2+3z10=0z2+7z10=0 \begin{aligned} z^2 - 3z + 2 &= 0 \\ z^2 + z + 2 &= 0 \\ z^2 + 3z - 10 &= 0 \\ z^2 + 7z - 10 &= 0 \end{aligned}
The solutions of the first equation are 11 and 22. The solutions of the second equation are not real because its discriminant is negative. The third equation has solutions 5-5 and 22, while the solutions of the fourth equation are irrational because its discriminant 8989 is not a perfect square.
Finally, the required solutions are (x,y){(1,2),(2,1),(2,5),(5,2)}(x, y) \in \{(1, 2), (2, 1), (2, -5), (-5, 2)\}.

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 reproduced verbatim; metadata (topic, difficulty) added by this project.