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Junior Balkan Mathematical Olympiad

Algebra Difficulty 4.9 AIME Prove it JBMO

Problem:
Find all ordered triples (x,y,z)(x, y, z) of real numbers satisfying the following system of equations:
x3=zy−2yzy3=xz−2zxz3=yx−2xy \begin{aligned} x^{3} & = \frac{z}{y} - 2 \frac{y}{z} \\ y^{3} & = \frac{x}{z} - 2 \frac{z}{x} \\ z^{3} & = \frac{y}{x} - 2 \frac{x}{y} \end{aligned}

Solution

Solution:
We have
x3yz=z2−2y2y3zx=x2−2z2z3xy=y2−2x2 \begin{aligned} & x^{3} y z = z^{2} - 2 y^{2} \\ & y^{3} z x = x^{2} - 2 z^{2} \\ & z^{3} x y = y^{2} - 2 x^{2} \end{aligned}
with xyz≠0x y z \neq 0.
Adding these up we obtain (x2+y2+z2)(xyz+1)=0\left(x^{2} + y^{2} + z^{2}\right)(x y z + 1) = 0. Hence xyz=−1x y z = -1. Now the system of equations becomes:
x2=2y2−z2y2=2z2−x2z2=2x2−y2 \begin{aligned} & x^{2} = 2 y^{2} - z^{2} \\ & y^{2} = 2 z^{2} - x^{2} \\ & z^{2} = 2 x^{2} - y^{2} \end{aligned}
Then the first two equations give x2=y2=z2x^{2} = y^{2} = z^{2}. As xyz=−1x y z = -1, we conclude that (x,y,z)=(1,1,−1),(1,−1,1),(−1,1,1)(x, y, z) = (1, 1, -1), (1, -1, 1), (-1, 1, 1) and (−1,−1,−1)(-1, -1, -1) are the only solutions.

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