Maths Olympiad Prep

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Number theory Difficulty 5.7 AIME, harder Prove it Romania

Determine the positive integers aa, bb, cc with the following properties:
(i) (a2+b2)(c2+20232)=(ab+2023c)2(a^2 + b^2)(c^2 + 2023^2) = (ab + 2023c)^2;
(ii) (a2+20232)(b2+c2)=(2023a+bc)2(a^2 + 2023^2)(b^2 + c^2) = (2023a + bc)^2;
(iii) the greatest common divisor of aa, bb, cc and 20232023 equals 11.

Solution

By subtracting the equality (i) from (ii) we obtain (a2c2)(b220232)=0(a^2 - c^2) \cdot (b^2 - 2023^2) = 0. Because aa, bb, cc are positive integers, we deduce that a=ca = c or b=2023b = 2023.

If a=ca = c, using (i) we find (a22023b)2=0(a^2 - 2023b)^2 = 0, that is a2=2023b=7172ba^2 = 2023b = 7 \cdot 17^2 \cdot b. Consequently 7b7 \mid b and 7a=c7 \mid a = c, therefore the greatest common divisor of aa, bb, cc and 20232023 is at least 77, contradicting assumption (iii).

If b=2023b = 2023, from (i) we obtain (ac20232)2=0(ac - 2023^2)^2 = 0, that is ac=20232=72174ac = 2023^2 = 7^2 \cdot 17^4. From (iii) we deduce that aa and cc are relatively primes, therefore the solutions are: (a,b,c){(1,2023,20232),(72,2023,174),(174,2023,72),(20232,2023,1)}(a, b, c) \in \{(1, 2023, 2023^2), (7^2, 2023, 17^4), (17^4, 2023, 7^2), (2023^2, 2023, 1)\}.

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Source: MathNet, licensed CC-BY-4.0. Statement reproduced verbatim; metadata (topic, difficulty) added by this project.