Maths Olympiad Prep

Library / Estonia — Open Contests /22 of 63

Estonia — Open Contests

Number theory Difficulty 5.1 AIME, harder Prove it Estonia

The greatest common divisor of positive integers aa, bb, cc is 11. It is known that cc divides a+2ba + 2b and a2−b2a^2 - b^2. Prove that cc also divides a−ba - b.

Solutions — 2

Solution 1

Let d=gcd⁡(a+b,c)d = \gcd(a+b, c). Since c∣a+2bc \mid a+2b, also d∣a+2bd \mid a+2b. Now (a+2b)−(a+b)=b(a+2b) - (a+b) = b and 2(a+b)−(a+2b)=a2(a+b) - (a+2b) = a are divisible by dd. Therefore dd is the common divisor of aa, bb, cc and due to our initial assumption of aa, bb, cc being relatively prime it has to be 11. Hence a+ba+b and cc are also relatively prime. But since a2−b2=(a−b)(a+b)a^2 - b^2 = (a-b)(a+b) is divisible by cc, the factor a−ba-b has to be divisible by cc.

Solution 2

Since a+2ba+2b is divisible by cc, also (a−2b)(a+2b)(a-2b)(a+2b) is divisible by cc. But (a−2b)(a+2b)=a2−4b2(a-2b)(a+2b) = a^2 - 4b^2; since a2−b2a^2 - b^2 is divisible by cc, the differences (a2−b2)−(a2−4b2)=3b2(a^2 - b^2) - (a^2 - 4b^2) = 3b^2 and 4(a2−b2)−(a2−4b2)=3a24(a^2 - b^2) - (a^2 - 4b^2) = 3a^2 also have to be divisible by cc.
If 3∤c3 \nmid c, then c∣a2c \mid a^2 and c∣b2c \mid b^2. Therefore every prime divisor of cc would also be a prime divisor of aa and bb, which would contradict the initial assumption. Hence either c=1c = 1, in which case the problem statement holds trivially, or 3∣c3 \mid c. In the latter case let c=3c′c = 3c'; the statements above show that c′∣a2c' \mid a^2 and c′∣b2c' \mid b^2. As we saw above, every prime divisor of c′c' would be a prime divisor of aa and bb, due to which c′=1c' = 1 and c=3c = 3. Now since a+2ba+2b and 3b3b are divisible by 33, also (a+2b)−3b=a−b(a+2b) - 3b = a - b is divisible by 33.

Want a route through all this instead of an archive? The track puts 2,604 problems in a working order, from Junior Challenge level to the IMO shortlist.

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