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jmc

algebra senior

Problem

Let be a complex number such that the distance from to 1 is twice the distance from to 1, while the distance from to 1 is four times the distance from to 1. Enter all possible values of separated by commas.
Solution
From the given conditions, and From the first equation, Since Thus, we can safely cancel the factors of to get From the second equation, Then so Let where and are real numbers. Then so the equations and becomes Hence, From the first equation, Substituting into the second equation, we get This simplifies to which factors as Hence, or

If then so

If then so But this leads to which is not allowed.

Therefore, the possible values of are

Alternative: We can rewrite the second equation as From the first equation, we have and Substituting these, we get This simplifies to and we can continue as before.
Final answer
i \sqrt{3}, -i \sqrt{3}