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Algebra Difficulty 6.1 National Olympiad Prove it Bulgaria

Problem:
Let aa, bb and cc be rational numbers such that a+b+ca+b+c and a2+b2+c2a^{2}+b^{2}+c^{2} are equal integers. Prove that the number abca b c can be written as a ratio of a perfect cube and a perfect square that are coprime.

Solution

Solution:
Let a+b+c=a2+b2+c2=ta+b+c=a^{2}+b^{2}+c^{2}=t. Then t0t \geq 0. On the other hand, the Root mean square - Arithmetic mean inequality implies that
a2+b2+c23(a+b+c)293tt2 \frac{a^{2}+b^{2}+c^{2}}{3} \geq \frac{(a+b+c)^{2}}{9} \Longleftrightarrow 3 t \geq t^{2}
Hence t{0,1,2,3}t \in\{0,1,2,3\}. If t=0t=0 or t=3t=3, then a=b=c=0a=b=c=0 or a=b=c=1a=b=c=1, respectively, and the statement is trivial.

Let t=1t=1. Denote by dd the product of the denominators of a,b|a|,|b| and c|c|. Then x=ad,y=bdx=a d, y=b d and z=cdz=c d are integers for which x+y+z=dx+y+z=d and x2+y2+z2=d2x^{2}+y^{2}+z^{2}=d^{2}. We may assume that z>0z>0. Note that
(x+y+z)2=x2+y2+z2xy+yz+xz=0(x+z)(y+z)=z2(x+y+z)^{2}=x^{2}+y^{2}+z^{2} \Longleftrightarrow x y+y z+x z=0 \Longleftrightarrow(x+z)(y+z)=z^{2}.
It follows that x+z=rp2x+z=r p^{2}, y+z=rq2y+z=r q^{2} and z=rpqz=|r| p q, where pp and qq are coprime positive integers, and rr is a non-zero integer. Since d=x+y+z=r(p2+q2)rpq>0d=x+y+z= r\left(p^{2}+q^{2}\right)-|r| p q>0 we get that r>0r>0. Then
a=xd=p(pq)p2+q2pq,b=yd=q(qp)p2+q2pq,c=zd=pqp2+q2pq a=\frac{x}{d}=\frac{p(p-q)}{p^{2}+q^{2}-p q}, \quad b=\frac{y}{d}=\frac{q(q-p)}{p^{2}+q^{2}-p q}, \quad c=\frac{z}{d}=\frac{p q}{p^{2}+q^{2}-p q}
and thus abc=[pq(pq)]2(pqp2q2)3a b c=\frac{[p q(p-q)]^{2}}{\left(p q-p^{2}-q^{2}\right)^{3}}.
It remains to show that pq(pq)p q(p-q) and p2+q2pqp^{2}+q^{2}-p q are coprime integers. Suppose that ss is a prime divisor of pq(pq)p q(p-q) and p2+q2pqp^{2}+q^{2}-p q. Let sps \mid p. Since sp2+q2pqs \mid p^{2}+q^{2}-p q, then sqs \mid q, a contradiction. Analogously, sqs \nmid q. Hence spqs \mid p-q. Then s(pq)2(p2+q2pq)=pqs \mid(p-q)^{2}-\left(p^{2}+q^{2}-p q\right)=p q, which is impossible.

The case t=2t=2 can be reduced to the case t=1t=1 by setting a1=1aa_{1}=1-a, b1=1bb_{1}=1-b and c1=1cc_{1}=1-c. Indeed, it is easy to check that a1+b1+c1=a12+b12+c12=1a_{1}+b_{1}+c_{1}= a_{1}^{2}+b_{1}^{2}+c_{1}^{2}=1 and a1b1c1=abca_{1} b_{1} c_{1}=-a b c.

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Source: MathNet, licensed CC-BY-4.0. Statement reproduced verbatim; metadata (topic, difficulty) added by this project.