AlgebraDifficulty 7.4National Olympiad, round 2Prove itUnited States
Find all positive integers n such that there are k≥2 positive rational numbers a1,a2,…,ak satisfying a1+a2+⋯+ak=a1⋅a2…ak=n.
Solution
The answer is n=4 or n≥6.
I. First, we prove that each n∈{4,6,7,8,9,…} satisfies the condition.
(1). If n=2k≥4 is even, we set (a1,a2,…,ak)=(k,2,1,…,1): a1+a2+⋯+ak=k+2+1⋅(k−2)=2k=n, and a1⋅a2⋅⋯⋅ak=2k=n.
(2). If n=2k+3≥9 is odd, we set (a1,a2,…,ak)=(k+23,21,4,1,…,1): a1+a2+⋯+ak=k+23+21+4+(k−3)=2k+3=n, and a1⋅a2⋅⋯⋅ak=(k+23)⋅21⋅4=2k+3=n.
(3). A very special case is n=7, in which we set (a1,a2,a3)=(34,67,29). It is also easy to check that a1+a2+a3=a1⋅a2⋅a3=7=n.
II. Second, we prove by contradiction that each n∈{1,2,3,5} fails to satisfy the condition. Suppose, on the contrary, that there is a set of k≥2 positive rational numbers whose sum and product are both n∈{1,2,3,5}. By the Arithmetic-Geometric Mean inequality, we have n1/k=ka1⋅a2⋅⋯⋅ak≤ka1+a2+⋯+ak=kn, which gives n≥kk−1k=k1+k−11. Note that n>5 whenever k=3,4, or k≥5: k=3⇒n≥33=5.196⋯>5; k=4⇒n≥434=6.349⋯>5; k≥5⇒n≥51+k−11>5. This proves that none of the integers 1, 2, 3, or 5 can be represented as the sum and, at the same time, as the product of three or more positive numbers a1,a2,…,ak, rational or irrational. The remaining case k=2 also goes to a contradiction. Indeed, a1+a2=a1a2=n implies that n=a12/(a1−1) and thus a1 satisfies the quadratic a12−na1+n=0. Since a1 is supposed to be rational, the discriminant n2−4n must be a perfect square. However, it can be easily checked that this is not the case for any n∈{1,2,3,5}. This completes the proof.
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