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51st Ukrainian National Mathematical Olympiad, 3rd Round

Ukraine algebra

Problem

Olesya was given a homework to add two canonical fractions and . Her classmate Andriy who missed the class asked her by phone about the homework, and due to bad connection he heard that they need to add and . After he added them, Andriy asked Olesya for the answer. It turns out that the answers are the same. Was Andriy right in his calculations, if Olesya got an excellent mark, and all 4 fractions, they have been working with are distinct?
Solution
Suppose his calculations are correct, then the following equality holds: or . Therefore, we have or , which contradicts to the assumption that all fractions are distinct.
Final answer
No

Techniques

FractionsSimple Equations