Find all pairs of positive integers for which
Solution
Let , then and . Because for , any solution satisfies and and are divisors of . If is odd, is a factor of . If is even, is odd and a factor of . The odd positive divisors of 360 not exceeding 36 are 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 15, 21 and 35. If is among these numbers and is a factor of 630, is a factor of 630 as well. This is the case for the numbers 1, 2, 5, 9, 35. If is among these numbers and is a factor of 630, will be a factor of 630. This is the case for being one of 2, 4, 6, 14, 20. The values for these numbers are collected in the following table.
| a | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 9 | 14 | 20 | 35 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 3 | 6 | 10 | 15 | 21 | 45 | 105 | 210 | 630 |
Because none of the quotients , , and occur in this table, no solution can have or equal to 4, 5, 6 or 9. The other values for lead to the following complete list of solutions:
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