1973 USAMO Problems/Problem 4

Problem

Determine all the roots, real or complex, of the system of simultaneous equations

$x+y+z=3$ ,

$x^2+y^2+z^2=3$ ,

$x^3+y^3+z^3=3$ .

Solution

Let $x$ , $y$ , and $z$ be the roots of the cubic polynomial $t^3+at^2+bt+c$ . Let $S_1=x+y+z=3$ , $S_2=x^2+y^2+z^2=3$ , and $S_3=x^3+y^3+z^3=3$ . From this, $S_1+a=0$ , $S_2+aS_1+2b=0$ , and $S_3+aS_2+bS_1+3c=0$ . Solving each of these, $a=-3$ , $b=3$ , and $c=-1$ . Thus $x$ , $y$ , and $z$ are the roots of the polynomial $t^3-3t^2+3t-1=(t-1)^3$ . Thus $x=y=z=1$ , and there are no other solutions.

Solution 2

Let $P(t)=t^3-at^2+bt-c$ have roots x, y, and z. Then $0=P(x)+P(y)+P(z)=3-3a+3b-3c$ using our system of equations, so $P(1)=0$ . Thus, at least one of x, y, and z is equal to 1; without loss of generality, let $x=1$ . Then we can use the system of equations to find that $y=z=1$ as well, and so $\boxed{(1,1,1)}$ is the only solution to the system of equations.

Solution 3

Let $a=x-1,$ $b=y-1$ and $c=z-1.$ Then $a+b+c=0,$ $a^2+b^2+c^2=0,$ $a^3+b^3+c^3=0.$ We have $\begin{align*} 0&=(a+b+c)^3\\ &=(a^3+b^3+c^3)+3a^2(b+c)+3b^3(a+c)+3c^2(a+b)+6abc\\ &=0-3a^3-3b^3-3c^3+6abc\\ &=6abc. \end{align*}$ Then one of $a, b$ and $c$ has to be 0, and easy to prove the other two are also 0. So $\boxed{(1,1,1)}$ is the only solution to the system of equations.

J.Z.

Solution 4

We are going to use Intermediate Algebra Techniques to solve this equation.

Let's start with the first one: $x+y+z=3$ . This will be referred as the FIRST equation.

We are going to use the first equation to relate to the SECOND one ( $x^2+y^2+z^2=3$ ) and the THIRD one ( $x^3+y^3+z^3=3)$ .

Squaring this equation: $x^2+y^2+z^2+2xy+2yz+2xz=9$

Subtracting this equation from the 2nd equation in the problem, we have $2xy+2yz+2xz=6$ , so $xy+xz+yz=3$ .

Now we try the same idea with the cubed terms. Cube the first equation:

$x^3+y^3+z^3+3xy^2+3xz^2+3yx^2+3yz^2+3zx^2+3zy^2=27$ . Plug in $x^3+y^3+z^3=3$ and factor partially:

$3+3(x^2(y+z)+y^2(x+z)+z^2(x+y))+6xyz=27$ .

Now here is the key step. Note that $z=3-x-y, y=3-x-z, x=3-y-z$ . So we are going to substitute $y+z, x+z, x+y$ for each of the expressions and we get: $-x^3+3x^2-y^3+3y^2-z^3+3z^2=8-2xyz$ (I rearranged it a bit).

Resubstituting in the second and third equation: $-3+3(3)=8-2xyz$ . So $xyz=1$ .

So now we have three equations for the elementary symmetric sums of $x,y,z$ :

Equation 4: $x+y+z=3$ (this is also equation 1)

Equation 5: $xy+yz+xz=3$

Equation 6: $xyz=1$ .

If we call the solutions of $t^3-3t^2+3t-1=0$ (Equation 7) $a,b,c$ , then $x,y,z$ are the three roots $a,b,c$ but in some order. Notice that Equation 7 can be factored as $(t-1)^3=0$ , which means that $t=1$ . Therefore $(x,y,z)$ are permutations of $(1,1,1)$ in some order, which can be only $(1,1,1)$ . (This step uses Vieta's formulas)

Therefore, the only solution is $\boxed{(x,y,z)=(1,1,1)}$ .

~hastapasta

Alternate solutions are always welcome. If you have a different, elegant solution to this problem, please add it to this page.

1973 USAMO (Problems • Resources)
Preceded by Problem 3	Followed by Problem 5
1 • 2 • 3 • 4 • 5
All USAMO Problems and Solutions

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