Maths Olympiad Prep

Library / HMMT February /781 of 1302

HMMT February

Algebra Difficulty 5.3 AIME, harder Find the answer

There are three pairs of real numbers (x1,y1),(x2,y2),\left(x_{1}, y_{1}\right),\left(x_{2}, y_{2}\right), and (x3,y3)\left(x_{3}, y_{3}\right) that satisfy both x3−3xy2=2005x^{3}-3 x y^{2}=2005 and y3−3x2y=2004y^{3}-3 x^{2} y=2004. Compute (1−x1y1)(1−x2y2)(1−x3y3).\left(1-\frac{x_{1}}{y_{1}}\right)\left(1-\frac{x_{2}}{y_{2}}\right)\left(1-\frac{x_{3}}{y_{3}}\right).

A number or a short expression. Fractions can be typed as 3/2, and spacing doesn't matter.

Solution

By the given, 2004 (x3−3xy2)−2005(y3−3x2y)=0.\left(x^{3}-3 x y^{2}\right)-2005\left(y^{3}-3 x^{2} y\right)=0. Dividing both sides by y3y^{3} and setting t=xyt=\frac{x}{y} yields 2004(t3−3t)−2005(1−3t2)=02004\left(t^{3}-3 t\right)-2005\left(1-3 t^{2}\right)=0. A quick check shows that this cubic has three real roots. Since the three roots are precisely x1y1,x2y2,\frac{x_{1}}{y_{1}}, \frac{x_{2}}{y_{2}}, and x3y3,\frac{x_{3}}{y_{3}}, we must have 2004(t3−3t)−2005(1−3t2)=2004(t−x1y1)(t−x2y2)(t−x3y3)2004\left(t^{3}-3 t\right)-2005\left(1-3 t^{2}\right)=2004\left(t-\frac{x_{1}}{y_{1}}\right)\left(t-\frac{x_{2}}{y_{2}}\right)\left(t-\frac{x_{3}}{y_{3}}\right). Therefore, (1−x1y1)(1−x2y2)(1−x3y3)=2004(13−3(1))−2005(1−3(1)2)2004=11002\left(1-\frac{x_{1}}{y_{1}}\right)\left(1-\frac{x_{2}}{y_{2}}\right)\left(1-\frac{x_{3}}{y_{3}}\right)=\frac{2004\left(1^{3}-3(1)\right)-2005\left(1-3(1)^{2}\right)}{2004}=\frac{1}{1002}

Want a route through all this instead of an archive? The track puts 2,604 problems in a working order, from Junior Challenge level to the IMO shortlist.

Source: Omni-MATH, licensed Apache-2.0. Statement reproduced verbatim; metadata (topic, difficulty) added by this project.