Maths Olympiad Prep

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, 2017

Number theory Difficulty 5.5 AIME, harder Prove it United States

Problem:
Find the number of ordered triples of nonnegative integers (a,b,c)(a, b, c) that satisfy
(ab+1)(bc+1)(ca+1)=84. (a b+1)(b c+1)(c a+1)=84.

Solution

Solution:
The solutions are (0,1,83)(0,1,83) and (1,2,3)(1,2,3) up to permutation.

First, we do the case where at least one of a,b,ca, b, c is 00. WLOG, say a=0a=0. Then we have 1+bc=84bc=831+b c=84 \Longrightarrow b c=83. As 8383 is prime, the only solution is (0,1,83)(0,1,83) up to permutation.

Otherwise, we claim that at least one of a,b,ca, b, c is equal to 11. Otherwise, all are at least 22, so (ab+1)(bc+1)(ca+1)53>84(a b+1)(b c+1)(c a+1) \geq 5^3 > 84. So WLOG, set a=1a=1. We now need (b+1)(c+1)(bc+1)=84(b+1)(c+1)(b c+1)=84. Now, WLOG, say bcb \leq c. If b=1b=1, then (c+1)2=42(c+1)^2=42, which has no solution. If b3b \geq 3, then (b+1)(c+1)(bc+1)4210=160>84(b+1)(c+1)(b c+1) \geq 4^2 \cdot 10 = 160 > 84. So we need b=2b=2. Then we need (c+1)(2c+1)=21(c+1)(2c+1)=21. Solving this gives c=3c=3, for the solution (1,2,3)(1,2,3).

Therefore, the answer is 6+6=126+6=12.

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