Maths Olympiad Prep

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Number theory Difficulty 4.8 AIME Find the answer Canada

For how many positive integers kk do the lines with equations 9x+4y=6009x+4y=600 and kx4y=24kx-4y=24 intersect at a point whose
coordinates are positive integers?

A number or a short expression. Fractions can be typed as 3/2, and spacing doesn't matter.

Solution

Suppose that kk is a fixed,
but unknown, positive integer.

Suppose also that the lines with equations 9x+4y=6009x+4y=600 and kx4y=24kx-4y=24 intersect at the point with
positive integer coordinates (x,y)(x,y).

Since 9x+4y=6009x+4y=600 and kx4y=24kx-4y=24, adding these equations, we get
9x+kx=6249x + kx = 624 and so (9+k)x=624(9+k)x=624.

Since xx and yy are to be positive integers and k>0k>0, then 9+k9+k and xx are a positive divisor pair of 624 with
9+k>99+k>9.

Now $624 = 6 \cdot 104 = 6 8\cdot 8 \cdot 13 =
2^4 3^1 13^1,andsothepositivedivisorsof, and so the positive divisors of 624are are $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 yy to be a positive integer.

Since the point (x,y)(x,y) lies on the
line with equation 9x+4y=6009x + 4y = 600,
then 4y=6009x4y = 600 - 9x which gives
y=15094xy = 150 - \frac{9}{4}x, which is an
integer exactly when xx is a
multiple of 4.

Therefore, we want xx to be a
positive divisor of 624 which is a multiple of 4.

Thus, the possible values of xx are
$4, 8, 12, 16, 24, 48, 52, 104, 156, 208,
312, 624$.

The corresponding values of 9+k9+k are
$156, 78, 52, 39, 26, 13, 12, 6, 4, 3, 2,
1$.

Since 9+k>99+k>9, we eliminate 6,4,3,2,16, 4, 3, 2, 1 from this list.

Thus, the possible values of 9+k9+k
are $156, 78, 52, 39, 26, 13,
12$.

The corresponding values of kk are
147,69,43,30,17,4,3147, 69, 43, 30, 17, 4, 3.

These correspond to the following values of xx: $4, 8, 12,
16, 24, 48, 52$.

Using y=15094xy = 150 - \frac{9}{4}x, these
give the following values of yy:
141,132,123,114,96,42,33141, 132, 123, 114, 96, 42, 33.
These are indeed all positive.

This means that there are 7 values of kk with the required properties.

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Source: CEMC, University of Waterloo, licensed CC-BY-NC-4.0. Statement reproduced verbatim; metadata (topic, difficulty) added by this project.