Maths Olympiad Prep

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Number theory Difficulty 5.6 AIME, harder Prove it Slovenia

Find all prime numbers pp, qq and rr such that 15p+7pq+qr=pqr15p + 7pq + qr = pqr.

Solution

The identities qr=pqr15p7pq=p(qr157q)qr = pqr - 15p - 7pq = p(qr - 15 - 7q) imply that qrqr is divisible by pp. Since pp, qq and rr are prime numbers, there are only two possibilities: p=qp = q or p=rp = r.

If p=qp = q we get 15+7q+r=qr15 + 7q + r = qr, which can be rewritten as
22=qr7qr+7=(q1)(r7). 22 = qr - 7q - r + 7 = (q - 1)(r - 7).
Exactly one of the numbers q1q-1 and r7r-7 is odd, so one of the primes qq and rr is even. The only possible case is q=2q = 2 and from this we get r=29r = 29.

If p=rp = r, then we can divide both sides by rr to get 15+8q=qr15 + 8q = qr or 15=q(r8)15 = q(r - 8). Now, qq is a prime and divides 1515. We conclude that qq is equal to either 33 or 55. If q=3q = 3 then r=13r = 13, if q=5q = 5 then r=11r = 11.

The solutions are (p,q,r)=(2,2,29)(p, q, r) = (2, 2, 29), (13,3,13)(13, 3, 13) and (11,5,11)(11, 5, 11).

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