Maths Olympiad Prep

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, 2018

Algebra Difficulty 6.1 National Olympiad Prove it United States

Problem:
Let aa, bb, cc be positive integers. All the roots of each of the quadratics
ax2+bx+c,ax2+bxc,ax2bx+c,ax2bxc a x^{2}+b x+c,\quad a x^{2}+b x-c,\quad a x^{2}-b x+c,\quad a x^{2}-b x-c
are integers. Over all triples (a,b,c)(a, b, c), find the triple with the third smallest value of a+b+ca+b+c.

Solution

Solution:
The quadratic formula yields that the answers to these four quadratics are ±b±b2±4ac2a\frac{ \pm b \pm \sqrt{b^{2} \pm 4 a c}}{2 a}. Given that all eight of these expressions are integers, we can add or subtract appropriate pairs to get that ba\frac{b}{a} and b2±4aca\frac{\sqrt{b^{2} \pm 4 a c}}{a} are integers. Let b=bab^{\prime}=\frac{b}{a} and c=4cac^{\prime}=\frac{4 c}{a}. We can rewrite the expressions to get that bb^{\prime} and b2±c\sqrt{b^{\prime 2} \pm c^{\prime}} are positive integers, which also tells us that cc^{\prime} is a positive integer. Let b2+c=n2b^{\prime 2}+c^{\prime}=n^{2}, b2c=m2b^{\prime 2}-c^{\prime}=m^{2}.

Notice that a+b+c=a(1+b+c4)a+b+c=a\left(1+b^{\prime}+\frac{c^{\prime}}{4}\right), so to find the third smallest value of a+b+ca+b+c, we first find small solutions to (b,c)\left(b^{\prime}, c^{\prime}\right). To do this, we find triples (m,b,n)\left(m, b^{\prime}, n\right) such that m2,b2,n2m^{2}, b^{\prime 2}, n^{2} form an arithmetic sequence. Because odd squares are 1mod41 \bmod 4 and even squares are 0mod40 \bmod 4, if any of these three terms is odd, then all three terms must be odd. By dividing these terms by the largest possible power of 2 then applying the same logic, we can extend our result to conclude that v2(m)=v2(b)=v2(n)v_{2}(m)=v_{2}\left(b^{\prime}\right)=v_{2}(n). Thus, we only need to look at (m,b,n)\left(m, b^{\prime}, n\right) all odd, then multiply them by powers of 2 to get even solutions.

We then plug in b=3,5,7,9b^{\prime}=3,5,7,9, and find that out of these options, only (n,b,m)=(1,5,7)\left(n, b^{\prime}, m\right)=(1,5,7) works, giving (b,c)=(5,24),a+b+c=12a\left(b^{\prime}, c^{\prime}\right)=(5,24), a+b+c=12 a. Multiplying by 2 yields that (n,b,m)=(2,10,14)\left(n, b^{\prime}, m\right)=(2,10,14) also works, giving (b,c)=(10,96),a+b+c=35a\left(b^{\prime}, c^{\prime}\right)=(10,96), a+b+c=35 a. For 11b1711 \leq b \leq 17, we can check that m=b+2m=b+2 fails to give an integer nn. For 11b17,mb+2,a+b+c=a(1+b+c4)a(1+11+1521124)=38a11 \leq b \leq 17, m \neq b+2, a+b+c=a\left(1+b^{\prime}+\frac{c^{\prime}}{4}\right) \geq a\left(1+11+\frac{15^{2}-11^{2}}{4}\right)=38 a, the smallest possible value of which is greater than 12a12 a with a=1,12aa=1,12 a with a=2a=2, and 35a35 a with a=1a=1. Thus, it cannot correspond to the solution with the third smallest a+b+ca+b+c. For b19b \geq 19, a+b+c=a(1+19+212+1924)=40aa+b+c=a\left(1+19+\frac{21^{2}+19^{2}}{4}\right)=40 a, which, similar as before, can't correspond to the solution with the third smallest a+b+ca+b+c.

Thus the smallest solution is (a,b,c)=(1,5,24),(a,b,c)=(1,5,6)\left(a, b^{\prime}, c^{\prime}\right)=(1,5,24),(a, b, c)=(1,5,6), the second smallest solution is (a,b,c)=(2,5,24),(a,b,c)=(2,10,12)\left(a, b^{\prime}, c^{\prime}\right)=(2,5,24),(a, b, c)=(2,10,12), and the third smallest solution that the problem asks for is (a,b,c)=(1,10,96),(a,b,c)=(1,10,24)\left(a, b^{\prime}, c^{\prime}\right)=(1,10,96),(a, b, c)=(1,10,24).

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