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Number theory Difficulty 3.8 AMC 10/12 Find the answer South Africa

How many pairs of non-negative integers xx and yy are solutions of x20+y15=1\frac{x}{20} + \frac{y}{15} = 1?

A number or a short expression. Spacing and $ signs are ignored.

Solution

6

We can re-write x20+y15=1\frac{x}{20} + \frac{y}{15} = 1 in the form 3x+4y=603x + 4y = 60. Then we can see that 3x3x must be divisible by 44, so xx must be, and trying successive possible values we see that only the following combinations of xx- and yy-values are acceptable: (0;15)(0; 15), (4;12)(4; 12), (8;9)(8; 9), (12;6)(12; 6), (16;3)(16; 3), (20;0)(20; 0).

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