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PrintMathematica competitions in Croatia
Croatia algebra
Problem
Azra thought of four real numbers and wrote on the blackboard the sums of all pairs of imagined numbers, and then she deleted one of the sums. There were numbers , , , and left on the blackboard. What numbers did Azra think of? (M. Bašić, M. Bombardelli)
Solution
Let , , and be the numbers Azra thought of. Without loss of generality, we can assume that the deleted sum is . Then there are numbers , , , and written on the blackboard, i.e. Since among the numbers on the blackboard we can choose two pairs of numbers with equal sums. We easily find the only such pairs , and therefore the sum of all numbers Azra thought of equals . Among the numbers on the blackboard, the number does not appear in the last equality (so ) and the deleted number equals . Let us now change the notation. Let , , , be the numbers Azra thought of, such that . We know that . Since , obviously is the smallest sum, and is the largest, so , . Now it is easy to see that the sum is smaller than all the sums except , and analogously is larger than all the sums except . So, and . Finally, . We see that , i.e. , and further , and . Let us check that the other equalities are satisfied: , , . Azra thought of numbers , , and .
Final answer
−3/2, −1/2, 5/2, 7/2
Techniques
Simple EquationsSymmetric functions