2021 AIME I Problem 15
Attempt Problem 15 of the 2021 AIME I below, then check your answer against the professionally curated solution from LIVE by Po-Shen Loh. You can also try the full timed exam, view all 2021 AIME I solutions, or check the answer key.
All problems are used with official legal permission of the Mathematical Association of America (MAA).
15.
Let be the set of positive integers such that the two parabolas and intersect in four distinct points, and these four points lie on a circle with radius at most Find the sum of the least element of and the greatest element of
Answer: 285
Solution:
Adding the equation to times gives a conic through all intersection points with equal and coefficients: a circle centered at with squared radius So whenever four distinct intersection points exist, they are concyclic, and the radius is at most exactly when i.e. for integers.
Substituting into the second parabola gives the quartic where For if then and if then while so thus there are no intersections with and since has exactly one positive root, has at most (and, by exactly) two positive roots. So fails. For we have so On we have so there is exactly one root there (at when ). If the negative derivative at that endpoint makes negative immediately to its right; if it is already negative at the endpoint. Since there is a second root in Finally, and so there is one root in each of and These four roots are distinct, and a quartic has no others.
Hence and the answer is
Problem 15 in Other Years
1997 AIME · 1998 AIME · 1999 AIME · 2000 AIME I · 2000 AIME II · 2001 AIME I · 2001 AIME II · 2002 AIME I · 2002 AIME II · 2003 AIME I · 2003 AIME II · 2004 AIME I · 2004 AIME II · 2005 AIME I · 2005 AIME II · 2006 AIME I · 2006 AIME II · 2007 AIME I · 2007 AIME II · 2008 AIME I · 2008 AIME II · 2009 AIME I · 2009 AIME II · 2010 AIME I · 2010 AIME II · 2011 AIME I · 2011 AIME II · 2012 AIME I · 2012 AIME II · 2013 AIME I · 2013 AIME II · 2014 AIME I · 2014 AIME II · 2015 AIME I · 2015 AIME II · 2016 AIME I · 2016 AIME II · 2017 AIME I · 2017 AIME II · 2018 AIME I · 2018 AIME II · 2019 AIME I · 2019 AIME II · 2020 AIME I · 2020 AIME II · 2021 AIME II · 2022 AIME I · 2022 AIME II · 2023 AIME I · 2023 AIME II · 2024 AIME I · 2024 AIME II · 2025 AIME I · 2025 AIME II · 2026 AIME I · 2026 AIME II