Maths Olympiad Prep

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Algebra Difficulty 5.7 AIME, harder Prove it

2. If the complex number zz satisfies z21=z2\left|z^{2}-1\right|=\left|z^{2}\right|, then z1z+1=|z-1|-|z+1|=

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Solution

2. ±2\pm \sqrt{2}.

From the condition, we have
(z1z+1)2=z12+z+122z21=2z2+22z21=2, (|z-1|-|z+1|)^{2}=|z-1|^{2}+|z+1|^{2}-2\left|z^{2}-1\right|=2\left|z^{2}\right|+2-2\left|z^{2}-1\right|=2,

thus z1z+1=±2|z-1|-|z+1|= \pm \sqrt{2}.

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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.