Solution:
We will show that the only solutions are 135 and 144.
We have a>0,b>0,c>0 and
9(11a+b)=(a+b+c)(abc−1)
- If a+b+c≡0(mod3) and abc−1≡0(mod3), then a≡b≡c≡1(mod3) and 11a+b≡0(mod3). It follows now that
a+b+c≡0(mod9); or abc−1≡0(mod9)
- If abc−1≡0(mod9)
we have 11a+b=(a+b+c)k, where k is an integer
and is easy to see that we must have 1<k≤10.
So we must deal only with the cases k=2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10
If k=2,4,5,6,8,9,10 then 9k+1 has prime divisors greater than 9, so we must see only the cases k=3,7.
- If k=3 we have
8a=2b+3c and abc=28
It is clear that c is even, c=2c1 and that both b and c1 are odd.
From abc1=14 it follows that a=2,b=7,c1=1 or a=2,b=1,c1=7 and it is clear that there exists no solution in this case.
- If k=7 we have c even, c=2c1, 2a=3b+7c1, abc1=32, then both b and c1 are even.
But this is impossible, because they imply that a>9.
Now we will deal with the case when a+b+c≡0(mod9) or a+b+c=9l, where l is an integer.
- If l≥2 we have a+b+c≥18,max{a,b,c}≥6 and it is easy to see that abc≥72 and abc(a+b+c)>1000, so the case l≥2 is impossible.
- If l=1 we have
11a+b=abc−1 or 11a+b+1=abc≤(3a+b+c)3=27
So we have only two cases: a=1 or a=2.
- If a=1, we have b+c=8 and 11+b=bc−1 or b+(c−1)=7 and b(c−1)=12 and the solutions are (a,b,c)=(1,3,5) and (a,b,c)=(1,4,4), and the answer is 135 and 144.
- If a=2 we have b(2c−1)=23 and there is no solution for the problem.