Its value isn't 4

Algebra Level 4

{ x + y + z = 1 x 2 + y 2 + z 2 = 2 x 3 + y 3 + z 3 = 3 \large \begin{cases} x+y+z=1 \\ x^{2}+y^{2}+z^{2}=2 \\ x^{3}+y^{3}+z^{3}=3 \end{cases}

Given that x x , y y and z z satisfy the system of equation above and x 4 + y 4 + z 4 x^4+y^4+z^4 can be expressed as m n \dfrac mn , where m m and n n are positive coprime integers, find m + n m+n .


The answer is 31.

This section requires Javascript.
You are seeing this because something didn't load right. We suggest you, (a) try refreshing the page, (b) enabling javascript if it is disabled on your browser and, finally, (c) loading the non-javascript version of this page . We're sorry about the hassle.

1 solution

Chew-Seong Cheong
Mar 14, 2017

Using Newton's sums method and let P n = x n + y n + z n P_n = x^n+y^n+z^n , where n N n \in \mathbb N , S 1 = x + y + z = 1 S_1 = x+y+z=1 , S 2 = x y + y z + z x S_2 = xy+yz+zx and S 3 = x y z S_3 = xyz , then we have:

\(\begin{array} {} P_1 = S_1 = 1 \\ P_2 = S_1P_1 - 2S_2 & \implies 2 = 1\cdot 1-2S_2 & \implies S_2 = \frac 12 \\ P_3 = S_1P_2 - S_2P_1+ 3S_3 & \implies 3 = 1\cdot 2 + \frac 12 \cdot 1 + 3S_3 & \implies S_3 = \frac 16 \\ P_4 = S_1P_3 - S_2P_2+ S_3P_1 & \implies P_4 = 1\cdot 3 + \frac 12 \cdot 2 + \frac 16 \cdot 1 & \implies P_4 = \frac {25}6 \end{array} \)

m + n = 25 + 6 = 31 \implies m + n = 25 + 6 = \boxed{31}

0 pending reports

×

Problem Loading...

Note Loading...

Set Loading...