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Algebra Difficulty 5.3 AIME, harder Find the answer

Let a1,a2,a_{1}, a_{2}, \ldots be an arithmetic sequence and b1,b2,b_{1}, b_{2}, \ldots be a geometric sequence. Suppose that a1b1=20a_{1} b_{1}=20, a2b2=19a_{2} b_{2}=19, and a3b3=14a_{3} b_{3}=14. Find the greatest possible value of a4b4a_{4} b_{4}.

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

Solution

Solution 1. Let {an}\{a_{n}\} have common difference dd and {bn}\{b_{n}\} have common ratio rr; for brevity, let a1=aa_{1}=a and b1=bb_{1}=b. Then we have the equations ab=20,(a+d)br=19a b=20,(a+d) b r=19, and (a+2d)br2=14(a+2 d) b r^{2}=14, and we want to maximize (a+3d)br3(a+3 d) b r^{3}. The equation (a+d)br=19(a+d) b r=19 expands as abr+dbr=19a b r+d b r=19, or 20r+bdr=1920 r+b d r=19 since ab=20a b=20. Similarly, (20+2bd)r2=14(20+2 b d) r^{2}=14, or 10r2+bdr2=710 r^{2}+b d r^{2}=7. Multiplying the first equation by rr and subtracting the second, we get 10r2=19r7(5r7)(2r1)=010 r^{2}=19 r-7 \Longrightarrow(5 r-7)(2 r-1)=0 so either r=75r=\frac{7}{5} or r=12r=\frac{1}{2}. For each value of rr, we have bd=1920rr=19r20b d=\frac{19-20 r}{r}=\frac{19}{r}-20, so (a+3d)br3=(20+3bd)r3=(57r40)r3=r2(5740r)(a+3 d) b r^{3}=(20+3 b d) r^{3}=\left(\frac{57}{r}-40\right) r^{3}=r^{2}(57-40 r) The greater value of this expression is 374\frac{37}{4}, achieved when r=12r=\frac{1}{2}.

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