Maths Olympiad Prep

Library / /4 of 10

, 2011

Number theory Difficulty 5.0 AIME Prove it India

Find three distinct positive integers with the least possible sum such that the sum of the reciprocals of any two integers among them is an integral multiple of the reciprocal of the third integer.

Solution

We first observe that (1,a,b)(1, a, b) is not a solution whenever 1<a<b1 < a < b. Otherwise we should have 1a+1b=l11=l\frac{1}{a} + \frac{1}{b} = l \cdot \frac{1}{1} = l for some integer ll. Hence we obtain a+bab=l\frac{a+b}{ab} = l showing that aba|b and bab|a. But then a=ba=b contradicting aba \neq b. Thus the least number should be 22. It is easy to verify that (2,3,4)(2, 3, 4) and (2,3,5)(2, 3, 5) are not solutions and (2,3,6)(2, 3, 6) satisfies all the conditions. (We may observe (2,4,5)(2, 4, 5) is also not a solution.) Since 3+4+5=12>11=2+3+63+4+5=12 > 11 = 2+3+6, it follows that (2,3,6)(2, 3, 6) has the required minimality.

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