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Junior Balkan Mathematical Olympiad

Number theory Difficulty 5.6 AIME, harder Prove it North Macedonia

Find all prime numbers p,q,rp, q, r, such that pq−4r+1=1\frac{p}{q} - \frac{4}{r+1} = 1.

Solution

(p,q,r)∈{(3,2,7),(5,3,5),(7,3,2)}(p, q, r) \in \{(3, 2, 7), (5, 3, 5), (7, 3, 2)\}

We can rewrite in the form
pr+p−4qq(r+1)=1⇒pr+p−4q=qr+q⇒r(p−q)=5q−p. \frac{pr + p - 4q}{q(r + 1)} = 1 \Rightarrow pr + p - 4q = qr + q \Rightarrow r(p - q) = 5q - p.

Hence p≠qp \neq q
r=5q−pp−q=4q+q−pp−qi.e.r=4qp−q−1. r = \frac{5q-p}{p-q} = \frac{4q+q-p}{p-q} \quad \text{i.e.} \quad r = \frac{4q}{p-q} - 1.
So p−q≠qp-q \neq q, p−q≠2qp-q \neq 2q, p−q≠4qp-q \neq 4q. We have p−q=1p-q=1 or p−q=2p-q=2 or p−q=4p-q=4.

i) If p−q=1p-q=1 then q=2,p=3,r=7q=2, p=3, r=7.

ii) If p−q=2p-q=2 then p=q+2,r=2q−1p=q+2, r=2q-1.
If q≡1(mod3)q \equiv 1 \pmod{3} then q+2≡0(mod3)q+2 \equiv 0 \pmod{3}, q+2=3⇒q=1q+2=3 \Rightarrow q=1 contradiction.
If q≡−1(mod3)q \equiv -1 \pmod{3} then r≡−2−1≡0(mod3)r \equiv -2-1 \equiv 0 \pmod{3}, so r=3,q=2,p=4r=3, q=2, p=4 contradiction.
Hence q=3,p=5,r=5q=3, p=5, r=5.

iii) If p−q=4p-q=4 then p=q+4,r=q−1p=q+4, r=q-1. Hence q=3,p=7,r=2q=3, p=7, r=2.

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