Maths Olympiad Prep

Library / /15 of 43

, 2005

Number theory Difficulty 4.7 AIME Find the answer Italy

Problem:

How many ordered pairs (x,y)(x, y) of positive integers xx and yy satisfy the relation xy+5(x+y)=2005x y + 5(x + y) = 2005?

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

Solution

Solution:

The answer is 10. Adding 25 to both sides we obtain the equivalent relation xy+5(x+y)+25=2030x y + 5(x + y) + 25 = 2030 from which, collecting on the left-hand side, we get (x+5)(y+5)=2030=25729(x + 5)(y + 5) = 2030 = 2 \cdot 5 \cdot 7 \cdot 29. Since xx is an integer, then x+5x + 5 is also an integer, and the same holds for yy. Hence it suffices to distribute the prime numbers of the factorization of 2030 between the two factors x+5x + 5 and y+5y + 5, in all possible ways.

Since xx must be positive, then x+5x + 5 must be at least 6, and the same for yy. In particular, the two factors must both be positive. Moreover the equation is symmetric in xx and yy, so one can assume that the unique factor 2 divides x+5x + 5. For x+5x + 5 there are then 5 possibilities: 252 \cdot 5, 272 \cdot 7, 2292 \cdot 29, 2572 \cdot 5 \cdot 7, 25292 \cdot 5 \cdot 29. The other cases are x+5=2x + 5 = 2, to be excluded, x+5=2729x + 5 = 2 \cdot 7 \cdot 29 and x+5=25729x + 5 = 2 \cdot 5 \cdot 7 \cdot 29, to be excluded because they respectively imply y+5=5y + 5 = 5 and y+5=1y + 5 = 1. The cases in which 2 divides y+5y + 5 are just as many, and they are all distinct from the previous ones because in 2030 there is only one factor of 2. Therefore the answer is 52=105 \cdot 2 = 10.

Want a route through all this instead of an archive? The track puts 2,000 problems in a working order, from AMC 10 level to the IMO shortlist.

Source: MathNet, licensed CC-BY-4.0. Statement translated into English from it; metadata (topic, difficulty) added by this project.