Maths Olympiad Prep

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Number theory Difficulty 5.9 AIME, harder Prove it JBMO

Problem:
Find all triples (p,q,r)(p, q, r) of prime numbers such that all of the following numbers are integers
p2+2qq+r,q2+9rr+p,r2+3pp+q \frac{p^{2}+2 q}{q+r}, \quad \frac{q^{2}+9 r}{r+p}, \quad \frac{r^{2}+3 p}{p+q}

Solution

Solution:
We consider the following cases:

1st Case: If r=2r=2, then r2+3pp+q=4+3pp+q\frac{r^{2}+3 p}{p+q}=\frac{4+3 p}{p+q}. If pp is odd, then 4+3p4+3 p is odd and therefore p+qp+q must be odd. From here, q=2q=2 and r2+3pp+q=4+3pp+2=32p+2\frac{r^{2}+3 p}{p+q}=\frac{4+3 p}{p+2}=3-\frac{2}{p+2} which is not an integer. Thus p=2p=2 and r2+3pp+q=10q+2\frac{r^{2}+3 p}{p+q}=\frac{10}{q+2} which gives q=3q=3. But then q2+9rr+p=274\frac{q^{2}+9 r}{r+p}=\frac{27}{4} which is not an integer. Therefore rr is an odd prime.

2nd Case: If q=2q=2, then q2+9rr+p=4+9rr+p\frac{q^{2}+9 r}{r+p}=\frac{4+9 r}{r+p}. Since rr is odd, then 4+9r4+9 r is odd and therefore r+pr+p must be odd. From here p=2p=2, but then r2+3pp+q=r2+64\frac{r^{2}+3 p}{p+q}=\frac{r^{2}+6}{4} which is not integer. Therefore qq is an odd prime.

Since qq and rr are odd primes, then q+rq+r is even. From the number p2+2qq+r\frac{p^{2}+2 q}{q+r} we get that p=2p=2. Since p2+2qq+r=4+2qq+r<2\frac{p^{2}+2 q}{q+r}=\frac{4+2 q}{q+r}<2, then 4+2q=q+r4+2 q=q+r or r=q+4r=q+4. Since
r2+3pp+q=(q+4)2+62+q=q+6+102+q \frac{r^{2}+3 p}{p+q}=\frac{(q+4)^{2}+6}{2+q}=q+6+\frac{10}{2+q}
is an integer, then q=3q=3 and r=7r=7. It is easy to check that this triple works. So the only answer is (p,q,r)=(2,3,7)(p, q, r)=(2,3,7).

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