Maths Olympiad Prep

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Number theory Difficulty 4.1 AIME Find the answer United States

Problem:

Find the smallest positive integer that is twice a perfect square and three times a perfect cube.

A number or a short expression. Fractions can be typed as 3/2, and spacing doesn't matter.

Solution

Solution:

Let nn be such a number. If nn is divisible by 22 and 33 exactly e2e_{2} and e3e_{3} times, then e2e_{2} is odd and a multiple of three, and e3e_{3} is even and one more than a multiple of three. The smallest possible exponents are n2=3n_{2}=3 and n3=4n_{3}=4. The answer is then 2334=6482^{3} \cdot 3^{4}=648.

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Source: MathNet, licensed CC-BY-4.0. Statement reproduced verbatim; metadata (topic, difficulty) added by this project.