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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 a2b2a^2 - b^2. Prove that cc also divides aba - b.

Solutions — 2

Solution 1

Let d=gcd(a+b,c)d = \gcd(a+b, c). Since ca+2bc \mid a+2b, also da+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 a2b2=(ab)(a+b)a^2 - b^2 = (a-b)(a+b) is divisible by cc, the factor aba-b has to be divisible by cc.

Solution 2

Since a+2ba+2b is divisible by cc, also (a2b)(a+2b)(a-2b)(a+2b) is divisible by cc. But (a2b)(a+2b)=a24b2(a-2b)(a+2b) = a^2 - 4b^2; since a2b2a^2 - b^2 is divisible by cc, the differences (a2b2)(a24b2)=3b2(a^2 - b^2) - (a^2 - 4b^2) = 3b^2 and 4(a2b2)(a24b2)=3a24(a^2 - b^2) - (a^2 - 4b^2) = 3a^2 also have to be divisible by cc.
If 3c3 \nmid c, then ca2c \mid a^2 and cb2c \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 3c3 \mid c. In the latter case let c=3cc = 3c'; the statements above show that ca2c' \mid a^2 and cb2c' \mid b^2. As we saw above, every prime divisor of cc' 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=ab(a+2b) - 3b = a - b is divisible by 33.

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