Both and are 3-digit positive integers, and and differ only in one of the 3 digits. Also, is an integral multiple of . How many possible such pairs are there?
Solution
From and the fact that is a multiple of , it follows that . Since is an integer greater than or equal to , we have , and therefore, we see that and differ on the hundred's digit. This means that there exists an integer () for which . Since divides , we see that divides . Also, from it follows that . From these considerations we conclude that must be one of the following:
, , , , , , , , , , , .
Values of matching these values of can be chosen for , , , , , , , , , , , different ways, respectively. Hence the total number of ways the pair can be chosen to satisfy the conditions of the problem is .
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