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Number theory Difficulty 4.0 AMC 10/12 Find the answer Italy

xx and yy are two positive integers such that x2y2x^2 - y^2 is positive, a multiple of 20112011 and has exactly 20112011 positive divisors. How many ordered pairs (x,y)(x, y) satisfy these conditions? Note: 20112011 is a prime number

Pick one

Solution

The answer is (C). First of all, note that a number has exactly 20112011 positive divisors if and only if it is of the form p2010p^{2010} with pp prime. We therefore need to solve x2y2=20112010x^2 - y^2 = 2011^{2010}.

By imposing that x+y=pαx + y = p^{\alpha} and that xy=pβx - y = p^{\beta}, with α+β=2010\alpha + \beta = 2010, we obtain that x=pα+pβ2x = \frac{p^{\alpha} + p^{\beta}}{2}, that y=pαpβ2y = \frac{p^{\alpha} - p^{\beta}}{2} and hence that α>β\alpha > \beta since yy must be positive. The equation α+β=2010\alpha + \beta = 2010 with α>β\alpha > \beta has exactly 10051005 solutions. Since xx and yy are uniquely determined by α\alpha and β\beta, it follows that the solutions of the initial equation are also exactly 10051005.

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Source: MathNet, licensed CC-BY-4.0. Statement translated into English from it; metadata (topic, difficulty) added by this project.