Maths Olympiad Prep

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Number theory Difficulty 5.7 AIME, harder Prove it Philippines

Problem:

Determine the number of ordered quadruples (a,b,c,d)(a, b, c, d) of positive integers such that abcd=216a b c d = 216.

Solution

Solution:

Since 216=2333216 = 2^{3} 3^{3}, any positive divisor of 216216 must be of the form 2x3y2^{x} 3^{y} for some integers xx and yy with 0x,y30 \leq x, y \leq 3. Thus, we set a=2x13y1a = 2^{x_{1}} 3^{y_{1}}, b=2x23y2b = 2^{x_{2}} 3^{y_{2}}, c=2x33y3c = 2^{x_{3}} 3^{y_{3}} and d=2x43y4d = 2^{x_{4}} 3^{y_{4}}, where 0xi,yi30 \leq x_{i}, y_{i} \leq 3 are integers for i=1,,4i = 1, \ldots, 4. We compute
2333=216=abcd=2x1+x2+x3+x43y1+y2+y3+y4 2^{3} 3^{3} = 216 = a b c d = 2^{x_{1} + x_{2} + x_{3} + x_{4}} 3^{y_{1} + y_{2} + y_{3} + y_{4}}
so the number of such ordered quadruples (a,b,c,d)(a, b, c, d) is the number of ordered 8-tuples (x1,x2,x3,x4,y1,y2,y3,y4)(x_{1}, x_{2}, x_{3}, x_{4}, y_{1}, y_{2}, y_{3}, y_{4}) of nonnegative integers such that x1+x2+x3+x4=y1+y2+y3+y4=3x_{1} + x_{2} + x_{3} + x_{4} = y_{1} + y_{2} + y_{3} + y_{4} = 3. By stars-and-bars, this number is (3+4141)2=202=400\binom{3 + 4 - 1}{4 - 1}^{2} = 20^{2} = 400.

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