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Algebra Difficulty 6.4 National Olympiad Prove it India

Problem:
Let AA be a set of real numbers such that AA has at least four elements. Suppose AA has the property that a2+bca^{2} + b c is a rational number for all distinct numbers a,b,ca, b, c in AA. Prove that there exists a positive integer MM such that aMa \sqrt{M} is a rational number for every aa in AA.

Solution

Solution:
Suppose 0A0 \in A. Then a2=a2+0×ba^{2} = a^{2} + 0 \times b is rational and ab=02+aba b = 0^{2} + a b is also rational for all a,ba, b in AA, a0a \neq 0, b0b \neq 0, aba \neq b. Hence a=a1Ma = a_{1} \sqrt{M} for some rational a1a_{1} and natural number MM. For any b0b \neq 0, we have
bM=aba1 b \sqrt{M} = \frac{a b}{a_{1}}
which is a rational number.
Hence we may assume 00 is not in AA. If there is a number aa in AA such that a-a is also in AA, then again we can get the conclusion as follows. Consider two other elements c,dc, d in AA. Then c2+dac^{2} + d a is rational and c2dac^{2} - d a is also rational. It follows that c2c^{2} is rational and dad a is rational. Similarly, d2d^{2} and cac a are also rationals. Thus d/c=(da)/(ca)d / c = (d a) / (c a) is rational. Note that we can vary dd over AA with dcd \neq c and dad \neq a. Again c2c^{2} is rational implies that c=c1Mc = c_{1} \sqrt{M} for some rational c1c_{1} and natural number MM. We observe that cM=c1Mc \sqrt{M} = c_{1} M is rational, and
aM=cac1 a \sqrt{M} = \frac{c a}{c_{1}}
so that aMa \sqrt{M} is a rational number. Similarly is the case with aM-a \sqrt{M}. For any other element dd,
bM=Mc1dc b \sqrt{M} = M c_{1} \frac{d}{c}
is a rational number.
Thus we may now assume that 00 is not in AA and a+b0a + b \neq 0 for any a,ba, b in AA. Let a,b,c,da, b, c, d be four distinct elements of AA. We may assume a>b|a| > |b|. Then d2+abd^{2} + a b and d2+bcd^{2} + b c are rational numbers and so is their difference abbca b - b c. Writing a2+ab=a2+bc+(abbc)a^{2} + a b = a^{2} + b c + (a b - b c), and using the facts a2+bca^{2} + b c, abbca b - b c are rationals, we conclude that a2+aba^{2} + a b is also a rational number. Similarly, b2+abb^{2} + a b is also a rational number.
Consider
q=ab=a2+abb2+ab q = \frac{a}{b} = \frac{a^{2} + a b}{b^{2} + a b}
Note that a2+ab>0a^{2} + a b > 0. Thus qq is a rational number and a=bqa = b q. This gives a2+ab=b2(q2+q)a^{2} + a b = b^{2}(q^{2} + q). Let us take b2(q2+q)=lb^{2}(q^{2} + q) = l. Then
b=lq2+q=xy |b| = \sqrt{\frac{l}{q^{2} + q}} = \sqrt{\frac{x}{y}}
where xx and yy are natural numbers. Take M=xyM = x y. Then bM=x|b| \sqrt{M} = x is a rational number. Finally, for any cc in AA, we have
cM=bMcb c \sqrt{M} = b \sqrt{M} \frac{c}{b}
is also a rational number.

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