Attila PfiSztor
Posted on Friday, 07 November, 2003 - 08:23 pm:

Please, help me with this:

Find all real solutions to the system of equations:
(x+y)^3=z
(y+z)^3=x
(z+x)^3=y
Andre Rzym
Posted on Saturday, 08 November, 2003 - 12:57 pm:

You can derive constraints on x, y, z and (I think - I haven't been through it too carefully) get the complete solution without solving much at all:

1) Observe the trivial solution x=y=z=0.

2) Observe that if x, y, z is a solution, then so is x'=-x, y'=-y, z'=-z.

3) If x=y=z is to be a solution, then

(x+y )3 =z

(2x )3 =x

If x0 [which impiles x=y=z=0] then

x=y=z=1/8 [the observation (2) above covering the negative solution]

4) Without loss of generality (and having recorded the solution (1)) we can assume

xyz>0. But x<1 [else (x+y )3 =zz>1, and then that y>1. But they can't all be > 1]. So

1>xyz>0

5) What if z>1/8? Write z=μ/8. Then (x+y )3 (2μ/8 )3 =8 μ3 /88= μ3 /8. The latter is >μ/8=z so the first equation is not satisfied. So z<1/8 [no need for 'less than or equal to' here since equality would imply that they are all equal, which is a solution we already have]

6) Having recorded solutions (1), (3), any reamining solution must have z<1/8, from (5). Can we have y1/8? No, because if so, x=μ/8, y=β/8 where μ and β are both 1. But then, (x+y )3 =(μ+β )3 /881/8, which is strictly greater than z, so the first equation is not satisfied. So both y and z are <1/8. The second equation implies x<1/8 also. So it remains to see whether there is a solution where

1/8>xyz>0

The answer is no. Write

x=α/8

y=β/8

z=χ/8

Then (y+z )3 =1/88(β+χ )3 1/88(β+β )3 =1/8 β3 <1/8β. The latter must be <x, therefore the first equation is not satisfied.

So the only solutions are the ones described in (1), (2), (3).

Andre