Maths Olympiad Prep

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Number theory Difficulty 4.9 AIME Prove it United States

Problem:

2000 distinct positive integers are written down, and it so happens that the product of any 3 different numbers from this list is a square. Prove that each one of them is a square.

Solution

Solution:

Let aa be any number in the list; we wish to prove that aa is a square. Let bb, cc, dd be any three other elements of the list, all different from each other. Then, the given implies that there are integers pp, qq, rr with abc=p2a b c = p^{2}, abd=q2a b d = q^{2}, acd=r2a c d = r^{2}. Multiplying these together gives a3b2c2d2=p2q2r2a^{3} b^{2} c^{2} d^{2} = p^{2} q^{2} r^{2}; equivalently,
a=p2q2r2a2b2c2d2=(pqrabcd)2. a = \frac{p^{2} q^{2} r^{2}}{a^{2} b^{2} c^{2} d^{2}} = \left(\frac{p q r}{a b c d}\right)^{2}.
So aa is the square of a rational number, but since it is an integer, we conclude that it is the square of an integer, as needed.

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