Maths Olympiad Prep

Library / /153 of 520

Number theory Difficulty 5.3 AIME, harder Find the answer

Problem 8.1. Find all rational numbers aa such that 4a21|4 a-2| \leq 1 and A=4a127a4A=\frac{4 a-1}{27 a^{4}} is integer. Ivan Tonov

A number or a short expression. Spacing and $ signs are ignored.

Solution

Solution: It follows from 4a21|4 a-2| \leq 1 that 14a34\frac{1}{4} \leq a \leq \frac{3}{4}. Also, it is clear that when a14a \geq \frac{1}{4}, then A0A \geq 0 and A=0A=0 only if a=14a=\frac{1}{4}. Let kk be a positive integer such that A=kA=k. Then 27a44al+l=027 a^{4}-4 a l+l=0, where l=1kl=\frac{1}{k}. Multiply the above equality by 3 and write it in the following way:

81a418a2+1+18a212al+3l1=0(9a21)2+2(3a1)212a(l1)+3(l1)=0 \begin{aligned} & 81 a^{4}-18 a^{2}+1+18 a^{2}-12 a l+3 l-1=0 \Longleftrightarrow \\ & \left(9 a^{2}-1\right)^{2}+2(3 a-1)^{2}-12 a(l-1)+3(l-1)=0 \end{aligned}

so (9a21)2+2(3a1)2+3(l1)(14a)=0\left(9 a^{2}-1\right)^{2}+2(3 a-1)^{2}+3(l-1)(1-4 a)=0. Therefore 3(l3(l- 1)(14a)01)(1-4 a) \leq 0, which is possible (recall a>14a>\frac{1}{4} ) only if l1l \geq 1 or k1k \leq 1. But since kk is a positive integer, it follows that k=1k=1 and a=13a=\frac{1}{3}. Therefore the required values are a=14a=\frac{1}{4} and a=13a=\frac{1}{3}.

Want a route through all this instead of an archive? The track puts 2,000 problems in a working order, from AMC 10 level to the IMO shortlist.

Source: NuminaMath-1.5, licensed Apache-2.0. Statement and solution reproduced as published; topic and difficulty added by this site.