Maths Olympiad Prep

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Number theory Difficulty 5.7 AIME, harder Prove it JBMO

Problem:
Find all the three digit numbers abc\overline{a b c} such that
abc=abc(a+b+c) \overline{a b c}=a b c(a+b+c)

Solution

Solution:
We will show that the only solutions are 135 and 144.
We have a>0,b>0,c>0a>0, b>0, c>0 and
9(11a+b)=(a+b+c)(abc1) 9(11 a+b)=(a+b+c)(a b c-1)
- If a+b+c0(mod3)a+b+c \equiv 0\pmod{3} and abc10(mod3)a b c-1 \equiv 0\pmod{3}, then abc1(mod3)a \equiv b \equiv c \equiv 1\pmod{3} and 11a+b0(mod3)11 a+b \equiv 0\pmod{3}. It follows now that
a+b+c0(mod9); or abc10(mod9) a+b+c \equiv 0\pmod{9} ; \text{ or } a b c-1 \equiv 0\pmod{9}
- If abc10(mod9)a b c-1 \equiv 0\pmod{9}
we have 11a+b=(a+b+c)k11 a+b=(a+b+c) k, where kk is an integer
and is easy to see that we must have 1<k101<k \leq 10.
So we must deal only with the cases k=2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10k=2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10
If k=2,4,5,6,8,9,10k=2,4,5,6,8,9,10 then 9k+19 k+1 has prime divisors greater than 9, so we must see only the cases k=3,7k=3,7.
- If k=3k=3 we have
8a=2b+3c and abc=28 8 a=2 b+3 c \text{ and } \quad a b c=28
It is clear that cc is even, c=2c1c=2 c_1 and that both bb and c1c_1 are odd.
From abc1=14a b c_1=14 it follows that a=2,b=7,c1=1a=2, b=7, c_1=1 or a=2,b=1,c1=7a=2, b=1, c_1=7 and it is clear that there exists no solution in this case.
- If k=7k=7 we have cc even, c=2c1c=2 c_1, 2a=3b+7c12 a=3 b+7 c_1, abc1=32a b c_1=32, then both bb and c1c_1 are even.
But this is impossible, because they imply that a>9a>9.
Now we will deal with the case when a+b+c0(mod9)a+b+c \equiv 0\pmod{9} or a+b+c=9la+b+c=9 l, where ll is an integer.
- If l2l \geq 2 we have a+b+c18,max{a,b,c}6a+b+c \geq 18, \max \{a, b, c\} \geq 6 and it is easy to see that abc72a b c \geq 72 and abc(a+b+c)>1000a b c(a+b+c)>1000, so the case l2l \geq 2 is impossible.
- If l=1l=1 we have
11a+b=abc1 or 11a+b+1=abc(a+b+c3)3=27 11 a+b=a b c-1 \text{ or } 11 a+b+1=a b c \leq\left(\frac{a+b+c}{3}\right)^{3}=27
So we have only two cases: a=1a=1 or a=2a=2.
- If a=1a=1, we have b+c=8b+c=8 and 11+b=bc111+b=b c-1 or b+(c1)=7b+(c-1)=7 and b(c1)=12b(c-1)=12 and the solutions are (a,b,c)=(1,3,5)(a, b, c)=(1,3,5) and (a,b,c)=(1,4,4)(a, b, c)=(1,4,4), and the answer is 135 and 144.
- If a=2a=2 we have b(2c1)=23b(2 c-1)=23 and there is no solution for the problem.

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