Maths Olympiad Prep

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Combinatorics Difficulty 5.5 AIME, harder Find the answer

For any real number α\alpha, define sign(α)={+1 if α>00 if α=01 if α<0\operatorname{sign}(\alpha)= \begin{cases}+1 & \text { if } \alpha>0 \\ 0 & \text { if } \alpha=0 \\ -1 & \text { if } \alpha<0\end{cases} How many triples (x,y,z)R3(x, y, z) \in \mathbb{R}^{3} satisfy the following system of equations x=20182019sign(y+z)y=20182019sign(z+x)z=20182019sign(x+y)\begin{aligned} & x=2018-2019 \cdot \operatorname{sign}(y+z) \\ & y=2018-2019 \cdot \operatorname{sign}(z+x) \\ & z=2018-2019 \cdot \operatorname{sign}(x+y) \end{aligned}

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

Solution

Since sign(x+y)\operatorname{sign}(x+y) can take one of 3 values, zz can be one of 3 values: 4037,2018, or -1. The same is true of xx and yy. However, this shows that x+yx+y cannot be 0, so zz can only be 4037 or -1. The same is true of xx and yy. Now note that, if any two of x,y,zx, y, z are -1, then the third one must be 4037. Furthermore, if any one of x,y,zx, y, z is 4037, then the other two must be -1. Thus, the only possibility is to have exactly two of x,y,zx, y, z be -1 and the third one be 4037. This means that the only remaining triples are (1,1,4037)(-1,-1,4037) and its permutations. These all work, so there are exactly 3 ordered triples.

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