For how many positive integers do the lines with equations and intersect at a point whose
coordinates are positive integers?
, 2022
Solution
Suppose that is a fixed,
but unknown, positive integer.
Suppose also that the lines with equations and intersect at the point with
positive integer coordinates .
Since and , adding these equations, we get
and so .
Since and are to be positive integers and , then and are a positive divisor pair of 624 with
.
Now $624 = 6 104 = 6 13 =
2^4 3^1 13^1624$1,
2, 3, 4, 6, 8, 12, 13, 16, 24, 26, 39, 48, 52, 78, 104, 156, 208, 312,
624 We also want the value of to be a positive integer.
Since the point lies on the
line with equation ,
then which gives
, which is an
integer exactly when is a
multiple of 4.
Therefore, we want to be a
positive divisor of 624 which is a multiple of 4.
Thus, the possible values of are
$4, 8, 12, 16, 24, 48, 52, 104, 156, 208,
312, 624$.
The corresponding values of are
$156, 78, 52, 39, 26, 13, 12, 6, 4, 3, 2,
1$.
Since , we eliminate from this list.
Thus, the possible values of
are $156, 78, 52, 39, 26, 13,
12$.
The corresponding values of are
.
These correspond to the following values of : $4, 8, 12,
16, 24, 48, 52$.
Using , these
give the following values of :
.
These are indeed all positive.
This means that there are 7 values of with the required properties.