Maths Olympiad Prep

Library / /182 of 520

Algebra Difficulty 5.3 AIME, harder Prove it

405*. If x,y,zx, y, z form a harmonic progression, then prove that

lg(x+z)+lg(x2y+z)=2lg(xz) \lg (x+z)+\lg (x-2 y+z)=2 \lg (x-z)

Solution

Given that if x,y,zx, y, z form a harmonic progression, then 1x,1y,1z\frac{1}{x}, \frac{1}{y}, \frac{1}{z} should form an arithmetic progression, i.e.,

2y=1x+1z \frac{2}{y}=\frac{1}{x}+\frac{1}{z}

or

2xz=y(x+z) 2 x z=y(x+z)

Consider the expression:

lg(x+z)+lg(x2y+z)=lg(x+z)(x2y+z)==lg[(x+z)22y(x+z)]=lg[(x+z)24xz]==lg(xz)2=2lg(xz) \begin{gathered} \lg (x+z)+\lg (x-2 y+z)=\lg (x+z)(x-2 y+z)= \\ =\lg \left[(x+z)^{2}-2 y(x+z)\right]=\lg \left[(x+z)^{2}-4 x z\right]= \\ =\lg (x-z)^{2}=2 \lg (x-z) \end{gathered}

since, taking into account equation (1), we have the right to write 4xz4 x z instead of 2y(x+z)2 y(x+z).

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.