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Algebra Difficulty 4.9 AIME Find the answer Italy

Problem:

Given the system

{x+y+z=7x2+y2+z2=27xyz=5 \begin{cases} x + y + z = 7 \\ x^{2} + y^{2} + z^{2} = 27 \\ xyz = 5 \end{cases}

how many ordered triples of real numbers (x,y,z)(x, y, z) are solutions of it?

Pick one

Solution

Solution:

The answer is (B).

FIRST SOLUTION

Let s=x+y+z=7s = x + y + z = 7, q=xy+yz+zxq = xy + yz + zx and p=xyz=5p = xyz = 5. One can easily notice that s2=x2+y2+z2+2(xy+yz+zx)=27+2qs^{2} = x^{2} + y^{2} + z^{2} + 2(xy + yz + zx) = 27 + 2q, from which q=11q = 11. Let us now consider the polynomial (tx)(ty)(tz)=t3(x+y+z)t2+(xy+yz+zx)txyz=t37t2+11t5(t - x)(t - y)(t - z) = t^{3} - (x + y + z)t^{2} + (xy + yz + zx)t - xyz = t^{3} - 7t^{2} + 11t - 5, which by construction has as its only solutions x,yx, y and zz. One checks that p(1)=17+115=0p(1) = 1 - 7 + 11 - 5 = 0 and that p(5)=0p(5) = 0, so two of x,y,zx, y, z are 55 and 11, and since the product xyzxyz is 55 the third variable must be equal to 11. It follows that x,y,zx, y, z are 1,1,51, 1, 5 in some order, and hence there are exactly three ordered triples of solutions: (1,1,5)(1, 1, 5), (1,5,1)(1, 5, 1) and (5,1,1)(5, 1, 1).

SECOND SOLUTION

As before we find 11=x(y+z)+yz11 = x(y + z) + yz; substituting y+z=7xy + z = 7 - x we thus find 11=x(7x)+yz11 = x(7 - x) + yz. Multiplying both sides by xx we get 11x=x2(7x)+xyz=x3+7x2+511x = x^{2}(7 - x) + xyz = -x^{3} + 7x^{2} + 5, so xx is a solution of this equation. One checks that the only solutions are 11 and 55, from which the values of y,zy, z are immediately obtained: for example, if x=5x = 5, then x+y=2x + y = 2, xy=1xy = 1, from which x=y=1x = y = 1.

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Source: MathNet, licensed CC-BY-4.0. Statement translated into English from it; metadata (topic, difficulty) added by this project.