Maths Olympiad Prep

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Algebra Difficulty 7.0 National olympiad Find the answer

Find all solutions to (m2+n)(m+n2)=(mn)3(m^2+n)(m + n^2)= (m - n)^3 , where m and n are non-zero integers.
Do it

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

Solution

Expanding both sides, m3+mn+m2n2+n3=m33m2n+3mn2n3m^3+mn+m^2n^2+n^3=m^3-3m^2n+3mn^2-n^3 Note that m3m^3 can be canceled and as n0n \neq 0 , nn can be factored out.
Writing this as a quadratic equation in nn : 2n2+(m23m)n+(3m2+m)=02n^2+(m^2-3m)n+(3m^2+m)=0 .
The discriminant b24acb^2-4ac equals (m23m)28(3m2+m)(m^2-3m)^2-8(3m^2+m) =m46m315m28m=m^4-6m^3-15m^2-8m , which we want to be a perfect square.
Miraculously, this factors as m(m8)(m+1)2m(m-8)(m+1)^2 . This is square iff (if and only if) m28mm^2-8m is square or m+1=0m+1=0 . It can be checked that the only nonzero mm that work are 1,8,9-1, 8, 9 . Finally, plugging this in and discarding extraneous roots gives all possible ordered pairs (m,n)(m, n) as {(1,1),(8,10),(9,6),(9,21)}\{(-1,-1),(8,-10),(9,-6),(9,-21)\} .

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