AMC Lecture Notes

Justin Stevens

Cybermath Academy
Contents

1 Systems of Equations 1
§1 Systems of Equations
1.1 Substitution
Example 1.1. Solve the system below for x and y:

x − y = 4, 2x + y = 29.

Solution. From the first equation, we see x = y + 4. Substituting into the second equation,
2(y + 4) + y = 29 =⇒ 3y + 8 = 29 =⇒ y = 7.
Therefore, x = 11 and the ordered pair of solutions is (x, y) = (11, 7) .

Example 1.2. Solve the following system of equations, where x and y are real numbers:
√ √
x + y + x + y = 30, x − y + x − y = 12.
√ √
Solution. Let u = x + y and v = x − y in the equations. Therefore,
u2 + u = 30, v 2 + v = 12.
The first quadratic has solutions u = 5 and u = −6 and the second v = 3 and v = −4. However,
√ √
the principal square root is positive, so x + y = u = 5 and x − y = v = 3. Hence,
(
x + y = 25
=⇒ (x, y) = (17, 8) .
x−y =9

Example 1.3. Find the positive integer x such that x(x + 1)(x + 2)(x + 3) + 1 = 2712 .

Solution. We substitute y = x2 + 3x + 1 and multiply the inner and outer terms:

x(x + 1)(x + 2)(x + 3) + 1 = x2 + 3x x2 + 3x + 2 + 1

= (y − 1) (y + 1) + 1
= y2.
Therefore, y = 271. We factor x2 + 3x + 1 = 271 as (x + 18) (x − 15) = 0, so x = 15 .

Exercises

1.1. (Mandelbrot) Two years ago, Gene was nine times as old as Carol. He is now seven times as
old as she is. How many years from now will Gene be five times as old as Carol?
√ 10
1.2. Find all values of x such that 4x − 3 + √ = 7.
4x − 3
1.3. (ARML) Find all values of r such that (r2 + 5r) (r2 + 5r + 3) = 4.
1.4? (HMMT) Find all real numbers x and y with x2 y 2 + x2 + y 2 + 2xy = 40 and xy + x + y = 8.

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1.2 Elimination
Example 1.4. Solve the following system of equations using elimination:

x + 2y = 18, 7x − 6y = 26.

Solution. We multiply the first equation by 3 to eliminate y:

3x + 6y = 54, 7x − 6y = 26.
Adding these equations gives 10x = 80, so x = 8. Then y = 5, so the solution is (x, y) = (8, 5).

Example 1.5. (COMC) Find all ordered pairs (x, y) that satisfy both xy 2 = 108 and x3 /y = 1010 .

Solution. Squaring the second equation gives x6 /y 2 = 1020 . Multiplying by the first equation:

x6
 
2 8 20



xy = 10 10 .
y2
Therefore x7 = 1028 , so x = 104 = 10000. Substituting this into the second equation, x3 /y = 1010 ,
we find y = 102 = 100, so the solution pair is (x, y) = (10000, 100) .

Example 1.6. Find all ordered pairs (x, y) such that 3x2 − 2xy = 336 and 2y 2 − 3xy = 84.

Solution. We begin by factoring out x and y from the two equations:

x (3x − 2y) = 336, y (2y − 3x) = 84.
Observe that 3x − 2y = − (2y − 3x) and since they are nonzero, we divide the two equations:
x(3x − 2y) −x 336
= = = 4.
y(2y − 3x) y 84
Hence, x = −4y. We substitute this into the first equation to arrive at
3 (−4y)2 − 2 (−4y) y = 56y 2 = 336 =⇒ y 2 = 6.
√ √ √ √ √
Hence, y = ± 6. The corresponding solution pairs are (x, y) = (−4 6, 6), (4 6, − 6) .

Exercises

1.5. (AMC 12) When a bucket is two-thirds full of water, the bucket and water weigh x kilograms.
When the bucket is one-half full of water the total weight is y kilograms. In terms of x and y,
what is the total weight in kilograms when the bucket is full of water?
√ √ √ √
1.6. Find all ordered pairs (x, y) such that x + y = 7 and 3 x − 4 y = −14.
2 y x
1.7. (Mandelbrot) Let x and y be real numbers satisfying = = . Determine x3 .
x 3 y
1.8. Find all r and s such that r2 − 2rs = 16 and rs − 2s2 = 4.

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1.3 Symmetry
Example 1.7. Solve the system of equations

2x + y + z = 32, x + 2y + z = 3, x + y + 2z = 21.

Solution. Since the equations are symmetric, we add them:

4x + 4y + 4z = 56 =⇒ x + y + z = 14.

Subtracting this from the three equations, we see (x, y, z) = (18, −11, 7) .

Example 1.8. Solve the system of equations xy = 27, xz = 8, and yz = 6.

Solution. Multiplying the three equations, we see

(xy) (xz) (yz) = x2 y 2 z 2 = 27 · 8 · 6 = 362 .

Therefore, xyz = 36. Dividing, we see (x, y, z) = (36/6, 36/8, 36/27) = (6, 9/2, 4/3) .

Example 1.9 (AMC 12). Find xyz if x, y, and z are positive reals satisfying the system
1 1 1
x+ = 4, y+ = 1, z+ = 7/3.
y z x

Solution. We want to find the product xyz, therefore, we multiply the three equations:
     
1 1 1 1 1 1 1
x+ y+ z+ = xyz + (x + y + z) + + + +
y z x x y z xyz
7 28
=4·1· = .
3 3
     
1 1 1 7 22
Adding the equations, x + + y+ + z+ = 4 + 1 + = . Therefore,
y z x 3 3
22 1 28 1
xyz + + = =⇒ xyz + = 2 =⇒ xyz = 1 .
3 xyz 3 xyz

Exercises

1.9. Find all solutions (x, y, z) to the system of equations

(x + y)(x + y + z) = 15,
(y + z)(x + y + z) = 6,
(z + x)(x + y + z) = −3.
1 1 1
1.10. Find ab + ab
if a and b are positive reals such that a + b
= 6 and b + a
= 4.

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1.4 Challenge Problems

1.11. Solve the following system of equations in w, x, y, z:

3w + x + y + z = 20
w + 3x + y + z =6
w + x + 3y + z = 44
w + x + y + 3z = 2.

1.12. (AIME) Find the positive solution to

1 1 2
+ 2 − 2 = 0.
x2 − 10x − 29 x − 10x − 45 x − 10x − 69
1.13. (Purple Comet) Let a, b, and c be non-zero real numbers such that

ab bc ca
= 3, = 4, and = 5.
a+b b+c c+a
abc
Compute the value of .
ab + bc + ca
1.14. (Math League) If x < y, find the ordered pair of real numbers (x, y) which satisfies

x3 + y 3 = 400, x2 y + xy 2 = 200.

1.15. (Purple Comet) Let x, y, z be positive real numbers satisfying the simultaneous equations

x(y 2 + yz + z 2 ) = 3y + 10z
y(z 2 + zx + x2 ) = 21z + 24x
z(x2 + xy + y 2 ) = 7x + 28y.

Find xy + yz + zx.

1.16. Find the four values of x that satisfy (x − 3)4 + (x − 5)4 = −8.

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1.5 Solutions
Exercises for Section 1.1

1.1 Let the current ages of Gene and Carol be g and c, respectively. Two years ago, Gene was
g − 2 years old and Carol was c − 2 years old. Therefore, we have the system of equations

g = 7c, g − 2 = 9 (c − 2) .

We substitute the first equation into the second:

7c − 2 = 9(c − 2) =⇒ 7c − 2 = 9c − 18 =⇒ 2c = 16 =⇒ c = 8.

Therefore, g = 7 · 8 = 56. Let the amount of time until Gene is five tims as old as Carol be t, so

56 + t = 5 (8 + t) =⇒ 56 + t = 40 + 5t =⇒ t = 4 years .

√
1.2 We substitute u = 4x − 3 into the equation to give
10
u+ = 7 =⇒ u2 − 7u + 10 = 0 =⇒ (u − 2) (u − 5) = 0.
u
√ √
If u = 2, then 4x − 3 = 2, so x = 7/4 . If u = 5, then 4x − 3 = 5, so 4x − 3 = 25 and x = 7 .

1.3 We substitute s = r2 + 5r + 1.5 into the equation:

(s − 1.5) (s + 1.5) = 4 =⇒ s2 − 2.25 = 4 =⇒ s = ±2.5

We solve the quadratics r2 + 5r + 1.5 = 2.5 and r2 + 5r + 1.5 = −2.5. The latter factors as
(r + 4)(r + 1) = 0 with roots r = −4 and r = −1 . For the former, we use the quadratic formula:
p √ √
−5 ± 25 − 4(−1) −5 + 29 −5 − 29
r2 + 5r − 1 = 0 =⇒ r = = , .
2 2 2

1.4 We substitute u = xy and v = x + y into the system of equations to obtain:

u2 + v 2 = 40, u + v = 8.

Squaring the latter equation, we have u2 + 2uv + v 2 = 64, therefore uv = 12. The solutions are
(u, v) = (6, 2), (2, 6). Then x and y are the roots of z 2 − 2z + 6 or z 2 − 6z + 2. However, for the
first quadratic, ∆ = 22 − 4 · 6 = −20 < 0, therefore, there are no real roots. In the second case,
√
z 2 − 6z + 2 = 0 =⇒ (z − 3)2 = 7 =⇒ z = 3 ± 7.
√ √ √ √
Therefore, the solution pairs are (x, y) = (3 + 7, 3 − 7), (3 − 7, 3 + 7) .

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Exercises for Section 1.2

1.5 Let the weight of the bucket without any water be b and the weight of the water be w:

b + 2/3w = x, b + 1/2w = y.

Subtracting shows 1/6w = x − y =⇒ w = 6x − 6y. Substituting this into the second equation,

b + 1/2 (6x − 6y) = y =⇒ b + 3x − 3y = y =⇒ b = 4y − 3x.

The total weight when the bucket is full of water is b + w = (4y − 3x) + (6x − 6y) = 3x − 2y .

1.6 Adding 4 times the first equation to the second, we see

√ √
√ √
√
4 x + y + 3 x − 4 y = 7 x = 4 · 7 − 14 = 14.
√ √
Therefore, x = 2, so x = 4. Substituting this back into the first equation, we have y = 5, so
y = 25 and the only pair of solutions is (x, y) = (4, 25) .

2 y 2 x
1.7 We are given = and = . Multiplying these equations gives
x 3 x y
4 x
2
= =⇒ x3 = 12 .
x 3

1.8 We rewrite the first equation as r(r −2s) = 16, and the second equation as s(r −2s) = 4. Since
they are nonzero, dividing gives r/s = 16/4, hence r = 4s. Substituting into the first equation
√ √ √ √ √ √
gives 4s2 − 2s2 = 4, so s = 2 or s = − 2. Therefore, (r, s) = (4 2, 2), (−4 2, − 2) .

Exercises for Section 1.3

1.9 Adding the three equations, (2x + 2y + 2z) (x + y + z) = 18 =⇒ x + y + z = ±3.
• If x + y + z = 3, then the first equation tells us (3 − z) (3) = 15, so z = −2. Similarly,
(3 − x) (3) = 6, so x = 1 and (3 − y) (3) = −3, so y = 4. Hence, (x, y, z) = (1, 4, −2).

• If x + y + z = −3, then we have (−3 − z) (−3) = 15, so z = 2. Similarly, (−3 − x) (−3) = 6,

so x = −1 and (−3 − y) (−3) = −3, so y = −4. Hence, (x, y, z) = (−1, −4, 2).
In summary, the solutions to the system are (x, y, z) = (1, 4, −2), (−1, −4, 2) .

1.10 Multiplying the equations a + 1b = 6 and b + a1 = 4,

  
1 1 1 1
a+ b+ = ab + 1 + 1 + = 24 =⇒ ab + = 22 .
b a ab ab