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Algebra Difficulty 5.7 AIME, harder Find the answer

Find all triples of real numbers (x,y,z)(x, y, z) that satisfy

x2+y2+z2+1=xy+yz+zx+x2y+z x^{2}+y^{2}+z^{2}+1=x y+y z+z x+|x-2 y+z|

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

Solution

We rewrite the given equation as

12x2xy+12y2+12y2yz+12z2+12z2zx+12x2+1=x2y+z, \frac{1}{2} x^{2}-x y+\frac{1}{2} y^{2}+\frac{1}{2} y^{2}-y z+\frac{1}{2} z^{2}+\frac{1}{2} z^{2}-z x+\frac{1}{2} x^{2}+1=|x-2 y+z|,

or equivalently as

12(xy)2+12(yz)2+12(zx)2+1=(xy)+(zy). \frac{1}{2}(x-y)^{2}+\frac{1}{2}(y-z)^{2}+\frac{1}{2}(z-x)^{2}+1=|(x-y)+(z-y)| .

Now substitute a=xya=x-y and b=zyb=z-y. Then xz=abx-z=a-b, so we get

12a2+12b2+12(ab)2+1=a+b. \frac{1}{2} a^{2}+\frac{1}{2} b^{2}+\frac{1}{2}(a-b)^{2}+1=|a+b| .

From (ab)20(a-b)^{2} \geq 0 it follows that a22ab+b20a^{2}-2 a b+b^{2} \geq 0, so 2a2+2b2a2+b2+2ab2 a^{2}+2 b^{2} \geq a^{2}+b^{2}+2 a b, which means that a2+b2(a+b)22a^{2}+b^{2} \geq \frac{(a+b)^{2}}{2} with equality if and only if a=ba=b. Of course, (ab)20(a-b)^{2} \geq 0 also holds. Therefore,

a+b=12a2+12b2+12(ab)2+1(a+b)24+1 |a+b|=\frac{1}{2} a^{2}+\frac{1}{2} b^{2}+\frac{1}{2}(a-b)^{2}+1 \geq \frac{(a+b)^{2}}{4}+1

Now write c=a+bc=|a+b|, then we have

cc24+1 c \geq \frac{c^{2}}{4}+1

This can be rewritten as c24c+40c^{2}-4 c+4 \leq 0, or (c2)20(c-2)^{2} \leq 0. Since the left side is a square, equality must hold, so c=2c=2. Furthermore, equality must also hold in our earlier estimate, so a=ba=b. Substituting this into (2) gives a2+1=2a^{2}+1=2, so a=±1a= \pm 1. Thus, we find the triples (y+1,y,y+1)(y+1, y, y+1) and (y1,y,y1)(y-1, y, y-1) for any yRy \in \mathbb{R}. Substituting these triples into equation (1) (which is equivalent to the original equation) shows that these triples are indeed solutions for all yRy \in \mathbb{R}. Therefore, all solutions are given by (y+1,y,y+1)(y+1, y, y+1) and (y1,y,y1)(y-1, y, y-1) with yRy \in \mathbb{R}.

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