Olympiad Maths Prep

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Number theory Difficulty 5.2 AIME, harder Prove it Romania

Find all the positive integers a,b,ca, b, c with the property a+b+c=abca + b + c = abc.

Solution

If one of the numbers is 00, then all are 00.
If abc0abc \neq 0, then the relation can be written 1bc+1ac+1ab=1\frac{1}{bc} + \frac{1}{ac} + \frac{1}{ab} = 1. Since the relation is symmetric in a,b,ca, b, c, we may assume that abca \le b \le c, whence abacbcab \le ac \le bc.
If ab>3ab > 3, then 1bc+1ac+1ab<1\frac{1}{bc} + \frac{1}{ac} + \frac{1}{ab} < 1.
If ab=2ab = 2, then a=1a = 1 and b=2b = 2, whence 12c+1c=12\frac{1}{2c} + \frac{1}{c} = \frac{1}{2}, so c=3c = 3.

If ab=3ab = 3, then a=1a = 1 and b=3b = 3, whence 13c+1c=23\frac{1}{3c} + \frac{1}{c} = \frac{2}{3}, so c=2c = 2, which contradicts b<cb < c.
Finally, the solutions are (0,0,0)(0, 0, 0) and all the permutations of (1,2,3)(1, 2, 3).

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