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Czech-Polish-Slovak Match

algebra

Problem

Find all quadruplets of real numbers satisfying the system
Solution
Let us set We'll show that for any real the inequality implies . After subtraction we see that Moreover, equality occurs when or , so either way it implies .

We can rewrite the system (implicitly using the symmetry of ) to the form: Now we can see that the system is symmetric in variables and may assume . We then write the chain of (in)equalities and since we in fact have equality everywhere, we deduce . All such quadruplets clearly satisfy the system so the problem is solved. □
Final answer
(t, t, t, t) for any real t

Techniques

Symmetric functionsLinear and quadratic inequalitiesSimple Equations