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Number theory Difficulty 4.8 AIME Prove it Japan

For a triplet (a,b,c)(a, b, c) of positive integers, an a×b×ca \times b \times c rectangular parallelepiped is constructed by assembling abcabc unit cubes. Then, all the faces of the parallelepiped are colored. How many possible triplets (a,b,c)(a, b, c) are there if the number of colored unit cubes equals the number of uncolored ones? Regard two triplets to be the same if they are permutations of each other.

Solution

If one of a,b,ca, b, c is less than or equal to 22, then we see all of the cubes used will be colored and therefore, the condition of the problem will not be satisfied. So, we assume that each of a,b,ca, b, c is greater than or equal to 33. We see that the uncolored cubes form an (a2)×(b2)×(c2)(a-2) \times (b-2) \times (c-2) rectangular parallelepiped enclosed within the given rectangular parallelepiped. Therefore, it is enough to determine the number of distinct (modulo permutations) triples (a,b,c)(a, b, c) of positive integers for which
abc(a2)(b2)(c2)=2,a,b,c3 \frac{abc}{(a-2)(b-2)(c-2)} = 2, \quad a, b, c \ge 3
are satisfied.

We may assume, without loss of generality, that abca \ge b \ge c hold. Since the function xx2=1+2x2\frac{x}{x-2} = 1+\frac{2}{x-2} is monotone decreasing for x3x \ge 3, we have aa2bb2cc2\frac{a}{a-2} \le \frac{b}{b-2} \le \frac{c}{c-2}, and therefore, we have 2=abc(a2)(b2)(c2)(cc2)32 = \frac{abc}{(a-2)(b-2)(c-2)} \le \left(\frac{c}{c-2}\right)^3. As (108)3=12564<2\left(\frac{10}{8}\right)^3 = \frac{125}{64} < 2, we must have c9c \le 9. On the other hand, if c4c \le 4, then we get cc22\frac{c}{c-2} \ge 2 from which it follows that ab(a2)(b2)1\frac{ab}{(a-2)(b-2)} \le 1, but this is impossible since 1<aa2bb21 < \frac{a}{a-2} \le \frac{b}{b-2}. Thus, we conclude that c=5,6,7,8,9c = 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 must be satisfied.

i. When c=5c = 5: In this case, we have 5ab=6(a2)(b2)5ab = 6(a-2)(b-2), which is transformed into (a12)(b12)=120(a-12)(b-12) = 120. From ab5a \ge b \ge 5, we get a12b127a-12 \ge b-12 \ge -7 and we see that it is not possible for a12a-12 and b12b-12 to be negative simultaneously. Therefore, the number of distinct pairs (a,b)(a, b) to satisfy the condition of the problem under the case in consideration equals the one-half of the numbers of the positive factors of 120=2335120 = 2^3 \cdot 3 \cdot 5, which equals 12{(3+1)×(1+1)×(1+1)}=8\frac{1}{2} \{(3+1) \times (1+1) \times (1+1)\} = 8.

ii. When c=6c = 6: In this case, we have 3ab=4(a2)(b2)3ab = 4(a-2)(b-2), which is transformed into (a8)(b8)=48(a-8)(b-8) = 48. Since ab6a \ge b \ge 6 implies that a8b82a-8 \ge b-8 \ge -2, we see that it is not possible to have a8a-8 and b8b-8 be negative simultaneously. Thus the number of pairs (a,b)(a,b) to satisfy the condition of the problem in this case is the one-half of the positive factors of 48=24348 = 2^4 \cdot 3, which equals 12{(4+1)×(1+1)}=5\frac{1}{2}\{(4+1) \times (1+1)\} = 5.

iii. When c=7c = 7: In this case, we have 7ab=10(a2)(b2)7ab = 10(a-2)(b-2), which is transformed to (3a20)(3b20)=280(3a-20)(3b-20) = 280. If we note that ab7a \ge b \ge 7, 3a201(mod3)3a-20 \equiv 1 \pmod{3} and 3b201(mod3)3b-20 \equiv 1 \pmod{3}, then we see that only possibilities for (3a20,3b20)(3a-20, 3b-20) are (12,2)(12, 2), (70,4)(70, 4), (40,7)(40, 7), (28,10)(28, 10), and the number of pairs (a,b)(a,b) to satisfy the condition of the problem in this case equals 44.

iv. When c=8c = 8: In this case, we have 2ab=3(a2)(b2)2ab = 3(a-2)(b-2), which is transformed to (a6)(b6)=24(a-6)(b-6) = 24. From ab8a \ge b \ge 8, we see that the pairs (12,2)(12, 2), (8,3)(8, 3), (6,4)(6, 4) are the only possibilities for (a,b)(a,b) to satisfy the condition of the problem in this case. Thus the number of such (a,b)(a,b) in this case is 33.

v. When c=9c = 9: In this case, we get 9ab=14(a2)(b2)9ab = 14(a-2)(b-2), which is transformed to (5a28)(5b28)=1828(5a-28)(5b-28) = 18 \cdot 28. From ab9a \ge b \ge 9, 5a282(mod5)5a-28 \equiv 2 \pmod{5} and 5b282(mod5)5b-28 \equiv 2 \pmod{5}, we see that there are no pairs (a,b)(a,b) satisfying the condition of the problem in this case.

Summarizing the results for the cases considered above, we get 8+5+4+3=208+5+4+3=20 for the number of triples (a,b,c)(a,b,c) to satisfy the condition of the problem.

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