Maths Olympiad Prep

Library / /831 of 860

Algebra Difficulty 5.7 AIME, harder Find the answer

Let (x1,y1),,(xk,yk)\left(x_{1}, y_{1}\right), \ldots,\left(x_{k}, y_{k}\right) be the distinct real solutions to the equation (x2+y2)6=(x2y2)4=(2x36xy2)3\left(x^{2}+y^{2}\right)^{6}=\left(x^{2}-y^{2}\right)^{4}=\left(2 x^{3}-6 x y^{2}\right)^{3} Then i=1k(xi+yi)\sum_{i=1}^{k}\left(x_{i}+y_{i}\right) can be expressed as ab\frac{a}{b}, where aa and bb are relatively prime positive integers. Compute 100a+b100 a+b.

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

Solution

Using polar coordinates, we can transform the problem to finding the intersections between r=cos2θr=\cos 2 \theta and r=2cos3θr=2 \cos 3 \theta. Drawing this out gives us a four-leaf clover and a large 3-leaf clover, which intersect at 7 points (one point being the origin). Note that since this graph is symmetric about the xx axis, we are only interested in finding the xx-coordinates, which is rcosθ=cos2θcosθ=2cos3θcosθr \cos \theta=\cos 2 \theta \cos \theta=2 \cos ^{3} \theta-\cos \theta. Now note that all points of intersection satisfy cos2θ=2cos3θ8cos3θ2cos2θ6cosθ+1=0\cos 2 \theta=2 \cos 3 \theta \Longleftrightarrow 8 \cos ^{3} \theta-2 \cos ^{2} \theta-6 \cos \theta+1=0 Now, we want to compute the sum of 2cos3θcosθ2 \cos ^{3} \theta-\cos \theta over all values of cosθ\cos \theta that satisfy the above cubic. In other words, if the solutions for cosθ\cos \theta to the above cubic are a,ba, b, and cc, we want 2cyc 2a3a2 \sum_{\text {cyc }} 2 a^{3}-a, since each value for cosθ\cos \theta generates two solutions (symmetric about the xx-axis). This is cyc4a32a=cyca2+a12\sum_{\mathrm{cyc}} 4 a^{3}-2 a=\sum_{\mathrm{cyc}} a^{2}+a-\frac{1}{2} where we have used the fact that a3=a2+3a12a^{3}=a^{2}+3 a-\frac{1}{2}. By Vieta's formulas, a+b+c=14a+b+c=\frac{1}{4}, while a2+b2+c2=(14)2+234=2516a^{2}+b^{2}+c^{2}=\left(\frac{1}{4}\right)^{2}+2 \cdot \frac{3}{4}=\frac{25}{16} Thus the final answer is 516\frac{5}{16}.

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