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Ukrainian National Mathematical Olympiad

Number theory Difficulty 5.8 AIME, harder Prove it Ukraine

Determine all possible positive integers mm and nn, that satisfy the following:
(m+n)!=2m!⋅n! (m+n)! = 2m! \cdot n!
where k!k! denotes the product 1⋅2⋅⋯⋅k1 \cdot 2 \cdot \dots \cdot k, where kk is a positive integer.

Solution

Without loss of generality, assume that m≥nm \ge n. Then, if n>1n > 1 equation can be written the following way:
1⋅2⋅3⋯m⋅(m+1)⋅(m+2)⋯(m+n)=2⋅1⋅2⋅3⋯m⋅1⋅2⋅3⋯n⇒(m+1)⋅(m+2)⋯(m+n)=2⋅1⋅2⋅3⋯n. 1 \cdot 2 \cdot 3 \cdots m \cdot (m+1) \cdot (m+2) \cdots (m+n) = 2 \cdot 1 \cdot 2 \cdot 3 \cdots m \cdot 1 \cdot 2 \cdot 3 \cdots n \Rightarrow \\ (m+1) \cdot (m+2) \cdots (m+n) = 2 \cdot 1 \cdot 2 \cdot 3 \cdots n.
The factors on the left side are not less than the factors on the right side, since the factors can be paired the following way:
m+1>1, m+2>2, …, m+n−1>n−1, m+n≥2n. m+1 > 1,\ m+2 > 2,\ \dots,\ m+n-1 > n-1,\ m+n \ge 2n.
Since the factor m+1m+1 always exists and m+1>1m+1 > 1, equation doesn't hold. If n=1n=1, equation (m+1)!=2m!(m+1)! = 2m! holds only if m+1=2m+1=2. Thus, the only solution is m=n=1m=n=1.

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