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Algebra Difficulty 5.0 AIME, harder Prove it Czech Republic

Find all real aa, bb, cc, such that
a2+b2+c2=26,a+b=5andb+c7. a^2 + b^2 + c^2 = 26, \quad a+b=5 \quad \text{and} \quad b+c \ge 7.

Solution

We show that the only solution is a=1a=1, b=4b=4 and c=3c=3.
Let s=b+c7s = b + c \ge 7. Substituting a=5ba = 5-b and c=sbc = s-b the first condition gives
(5b)2+b2+(sb)2=26, (5-b)^2 + b^2 + (s-b)^2 = 26,
thus
3b22(s+5)b+s21=0. 3b^2 - 2(s+5)b + s^2 - 1 = 0.
The equation has a real solution iff the discriminant 4(s+5)212(s21)04(s+5)^2 - 12(s^2-1) \ge 0. This yields s25s140s^2 - 5s - 14 \le 0, or (s+2)(s7)0(s+2)(s-7) \le 0. Since s7s \ge 7, there must be s=7s=7. If we substitute to the previous equation we get
3b224b+48=0; 3b^2 - 24b + 48 = 0;
with the only solution b=4b=4. Then a=1a=1 and c=3c=3.

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