Maths Olympiad Prep

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, 2021

Algebra Difficulty 5.0 AIME, harder Prove it United States

Problem:
Suppose mm and nn are positive integers for which
- the sum of the first mm multiples of nn is 120120, and
- the sum of the first m3m^{3} multiples of n3n^{3} is 40320004032000.
Determine the sum of the first m2m^{2} multiples of n2n^{2}.

Solution

Solution:
For any positive integers aa and bb, the sum of the first aa multiples of bb is b+2b++ab=b(1+2++a)=a(a+1)b2b + 2b + \cdots + ab = b(1 + 2 + \cdots + a) = \frac{a(a+1)b}{2}. Thus, the conditions imply m(m+1)n=240m(m+1)n = 240 and m3(m3+1)n3=8064000m^{3}(m^{3}+1)n^{3} = 8064000, whence
(m+1)3m3+1=(m(m+1)n)3m3(m3+1)n3=24038064000=127 \frac{(m+1)^{3}}{m^{3}+1} = \frac{(m(m+1)n)^{3}}{m^{3}(m^{3}+1)n^{3}} = \frac{240^{3}}{8064000} = \frac{12}{7}
Thus, we have 7(m+1)2=12(m2m+1)7(m+1)^{2} = 12(m^{2} - m + 1) or 5m226m+5=05m^{2} - 26m + 5 = 0, so m=5m = 5 and therefore n=8n = 8. The answer is m2(m2+1)2n2=20800\frac{m^{2}(m^{2}+1)}{2} n^{2} = 20800.

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