Maths Olympiad Prep

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Number theory Difficulty 5.2 AIME, harder Prove it Hong Kong

Find all positive integers nn such that the equation x3+y3+z3=nx2y2z2x^3 + y^3 + z^3 = nx^2y^2z^2 has positive integer solutions. Be sure to give a proof.

Solution

nn can be 11 or 33.

WLOG assume xyzx \ge y \ge z. Then we have
3x3x3+y3+z3=nx2y2z2, 3x^3 \ge x^3 + y^3 + z^3 = nx^2y^2z^2,
which gives xn3y2z2x \ge \frac{n}{3}y^2z^2.

Next, we rewrite the equation as y3+z3=x2(ny2z2x)y^3 + z^3 = x^2(ny^2z^2 - x). Since the left-hand side is positive, we have ny2z2x1ny^2z^2 - x \ge 1. Thus,
2y3y3+z3(n3y2z2)2(1)=n29y4z4. 2y^3 \ge y^3 + z^3 \ge \left(\frac{n}{3}y^2z^2\right)^2 (1) = \frac{n^2}{9}y^4z^4.
This yields 18n2yz418 \ge n^2yz^4. There is no positive integer solution when n5n \ge 5. When n=4n = 4, we must have y=z=1y = z = 1. The given equation becomes x3+2=4x2x^3 + 2 = 4x^2. This shows x22x^2 \mid 2, and hence x=1x = 1. But this is not a solution.

For n=3n = 3, we can take x=y=z=1x = y = z = 1.
For n=2n = 2, we have 184yz418 \ge 4yz^4. So z=1z = 1 and y4y \le 4. Note that x2y3+z3=y3+1x^2 \mid y^3 + z^3 = y^3 + 1.
As xyx \ge y, (x,y)(x, y) can only be (1,1)(1, 1), (3,2)(3, 2). It is routine to check that none of these is a solution to x3+y3+1=2x2y2x^3 + y^3 + 1 = 2x^2y^2.
For n=1n = 1, we can take (x,y,z)=(3,2,1)(x, y, z) = (3, 2, 1).
Thus, nn can only be 11 or 33.

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