Maths Olympiad Prep

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Number theory Difficulty 4.7 AIME Prove it United States

Problem:

Find all ordered pairs (a,b)(a, b) of positive integers such that 2a+12a + 1 divides 3b13b - 1 and 2b+12b + 1 divides 3a13a - 1.

Solution

Solution:

This is equivalent to the existence of nonnegative integers cc and dd such that 3b1=c(2a+1)3b - 1 = c(2a + 1) and 3a1=d(2b+1)3a - 1 = d(2b + 1). Then
cd=(3b1)(3a1)(2a+1)(2b+1)=3a12a+13b12b+1<3232=2.25. c d = \frac{(3b - 1)(3a - 1)}{(2a + 1)(2b + 1)} = \frac{3a - 1}{2a + 1} \cdot \frac{3b - 1}{2b + 1} < \frac{3}{2} \cdot \frac{3}{2} = 2.25.
Neither cc nor dd can equal 00 since that would give a=13a = \frac{1}{3} or b=13b = \frac{1}{3}, so cd2.25cd \leq 2.25 implies (c,d){(1,1),(2,1),(1,2)}(c, d) \in \{(1, 1), (2, 1), (1, 2)\}. Substituting (c,d)(c, d) back in gives three systems of equations and the three solutions: (2,2),(12,17),(17,12)(2, 2), (12, 17), (17, 12).

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