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Number theory Difficulty 4.6 AIME Find the answer Italy

Problem:

The numbers a,ba, b are positive integers. What is the minimum value of a+ba+b so that 21ab221 a b^{2} and 15ab15 a b are both perfect cubes?

Pick one

Solution

Solution:

The answer is (E). The smallest perfect cubes of the form 21ab221 a b^{2} and 15ab15 a b are such that aa and bb can only contain the factors 3, 5 and 7 (those contained in 15 or in 21). Let us set a=3l5m7na=3^{l} \cdot 5^{m} \cdot 7^{n} and b=3p5q7rb=3^{p} \cdot 5^{q} \cdot 7^{r} (with non-negative integer exponents), so
21ab2=3l+2p+15m+2q7n+2r+1 21 a b^{2} = 3^{l+2p+1} \cdot 5^{m+2q} \cdot 7^{n+2r+1}
and
15ab=3l+p+15m+q+17n+r 15 a b = 3^{l+p+1} \cdot 5^{m+q+1} \cdot 7^{n+r}
All the exponents must be multiples of 3, and, in order to obtain the smallest value of a+ba+b, they must be as small as possible. So we have the following systems
{l+2p+1=3k1l+p+1=3h1;{m+2q=3k2m+q+1=3h2;{n+2r+1=3k3n+r=3h3 \left\{ \begin{array}{l} l+2p+1=3k_{1} \\ l+p+1=3h_{1} \end{array} \right. \quad ; \left\{ \begin{array}{l} m+2q=3k_{2} \\ m+q+1=3h_{2} \end{array} \right. \quad ; \left\{ \begin{array}{l} n+2r+1=3k_{3} \\ n+r=3h_{3} \end{array} \right.
The smallest non-negative integer solutions are p=0p=0, l=2l=2, m=1m=1, q=1q=1, n=1n=1, r=2r=2, so
a=325171=315, a=3^{2} \cdot 5^{1} \cdot 7^{1}=315,
b=305172=245 b=3^{0} \cdot 5^{1} \cdot 7^{2}=245
and
a+b=560. a+b=560.

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Source: MathNet, licensed CC-BY-4.0. Statement translated into English from it; metadata (topic, difficulty) added by this project.