No zero's allowed, sir.

Algebra Level 5

If there exists a solution ( x , y ) ( 0 , 0 ) (x,y) \neq (0,0) such that...

( x 2 + 2014 x ) ( y 2 + 2014 y ) = 2014 \large ( \sqrt{x^{2}+2014}-x)( \sqrt{y^{2}+2014}-y) = 2014

Find the value of 2014 x + y 4 x + y \large \frac{2014x+y}{4x+y} .


The answer is 671.

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1 solution

Yong See Foo
Jan 27, 2014

So, this problems has those nasty square roots, and expanding and squaring looks even more ugly. The cleaner way, is to use to identity ( a b ) ( a = b ) = a 2 b 2 ! (a-b)(a=b)=a^2-b^2! (Just an exclamation mark, not factorial)

Multiplying both sides by ( x 2 + 2014 + x ) ( y 2 + 2014 + y ) (\sqrt{x^2+2014}+x)(\sqrt{y^2+2014}+y) makes the LHS become

( x 2 2014 + x ) ( y 2 2014 + y ) ( x 2 + 2014 + x ) ( y 2 + 2014 + y ) = ( x 2 + 2014 x 2 ) ( y 2 + 2014 y 2 ) = 201 4 2 (\sqrt{x^2-2014}+x)(\sqrt{y^2-2014}+y)(\sqrt{x^2+2014}+x)(\sqrt{y^2+2014}+y)=(x^2+2014-x^2)(y^2+2014-y^2)=2014^2 .

Hang on, dividing this by the given equation then gives ( x 2 + 2014 + x ) ( y 2 + 2014 + y ) = 2014 (\sqrt{x^2+2014}+x)(\sqrt{y^2+2014}+y)=2014 , a very nice equation as we have the original equation too. Now expanding and equating these two equations is much better.

So equate the two equations, and after some cancelling and simplifying we then get y x 2 + 2014 = x y 2 + 2014 y\sqrt{x^2+2014}=-x\sqrt{y^2+2014} , since x , y x,y are nonzero, one of them must be negative as square roots are positive. Assume that x x is negative and y y is positive, then we replace z = x > 0 z=-x>0 . We then obtain y z 2 + 2014 = z y 2 + 2014 y\sqrt{z^2+2014}=z\sqrt{y^2+2014} and after squaring, y 2 z 2 + 2014 y 2 = y 2 z 2 + 2014 z 2 y = z y^2z^2+2014y^2=y^2z^2+2014z^2\iff y=z since we have the assumption of y y and z z being positive. This implies y = x y=-x .

Then do we go and solve for x x and y y ? No, we just go back to the desired expression. (Although the solutions are just y = x y=-x which is sufficient) Substituting x = y x=-y gives 2014 x + y 4 x + y = 2013 x 3 x = 671 \frac{2014x+y}{4x+y}=\frac{2013x}{3x}=\boxed{\textbf{671}} as x 0 x\neq 0 .

( x 2 + 2014 x ) ( 2014 y 2 + 2014 + y ) = 2014 \large ( \sqrt{x^{2}+2014}-x)( \dfrac{2014}{\sqrt{y^{2}+2014} + y})= 2014

x 2 + 2014 x = y 2 + 2014 + y \sqrt{x^{2}+2014}-x = \sqrt{y^{2}+2014} + y

Thus x = y x = -y

2013 x 3 x = 671 \dfrac{ 2013x}{3x} = 671

U Z - 6 years, 4 months ago

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Nicely done, Megh. :) I think, though, that you would have to prove that line 2 necessarily implies line 3. I did a bit of rearranging and squaring, etc., and ended up with ( x + y ) 2 = 0 (x + y)^{2} = 0 , which would then necessarily imply that x = y . x = -y.

Brian Charlesworth - 6 years, 4 months ago

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That's I want to see , how anyone else who sees concludes it

U Z - 6 years, 4 months ago

If we do the same by interchanging the two variables and subtracting thus equation we get x=-y.

y 2 + 2014 y = x 2 + 2014 + x \sqrt {y^{2}+2014}-y=\sqrt {x^{2}+2014}+x

Joel Tan - 6 years, 3 months ago

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