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Number theory Difficulty 5.6 AIME, harder Prove it Saudi Arabia

Let pairwise different positive integers aa, bb, cc with gcd(a,b,c)=1\operatorname{gcd}(a, b, c) = 1 are such that
a(bc)2,b(ca)2,c(ab)2. a \mid (b - c)^2, \quad b \mid (c - a)^2, \quad c \mid (a - b)^2.
Prove that there is no non-degenerate triangle with side lengths aa, bb and cc.

Solution

First, we will show that aa, bb, cc are pairwise coprime. Denote d=gcd(b,c)d = \operatorname{gcd}(b, c) and suppose that d>1d > 1. Take pp as a prime divisor of dd. We have
{pbpc{p(ca)2p(ab)2pcapabpa. \left\{\begin{array}{l} p \mid b \\ p \mid c \end{array}\right. \Rightarrow \left\{\begin{array}{l} p \mid (c - a)^2 \\ p \mid (a - b)^2 \end{array}\right. \Rightarrow \left.\begin{array}{l} p \mid c - a \\ p \mid a - b \end{array} \Rightarrow p \mid a.\right.
This implies that pgcd(a,b,c)p \mid \operatorname{gcd}(a, b, c), a contradiction. So gcd(b,c)=1\operatorname{gcd}(b, c) = 1. Similar with gcd(c,a)\operatorname{gcd}(c, a), gcd(a,b)\operatorname{gcd}(a, b).

Suppose that aa, bb, cc are side-lengths of some triangle then
b+c>a,c+a>b,a+b>c. b + c > a, \quad c + a > b, \quad a + b > c.
So by putting x=(a+bc)(b+ca)(c+ab)>0x = (a + b - c)(b + c - a)(c + a - b) > 0, we can see that x>0x > 0.

We have a(bc)2a2=(bca)(bc+a)a \mid (b - c)^2 - a^2 = (b - c - a)(b - c + a), thus axa \mid x. Similarly, we have bxb \mid x, cxc \mid x and since gcd(a,b)=gcd(b,c)=gcd(c,a)=1\operatorname{gcd}(a, b) = \operatorname{gcd}(b, c) = \operatorname{gcd}(c, a) = 1 so abcxa b c \mid x. Hence,
abc(a+bc)(b+ca)(c+ab). a b c \leq (a + b - c)(b + c - a)(c + a - b).
From AM-GM, we have (a+bc)(b+ca)(a+bc+b+ca2)2=b2(a + b - c)(b + c - a) \leq \left(\frac{a + b - c + b + c - a}{2}\right)^2 = b^2 and similar inequalities as (b+ca)(c+ab)c2(b + c - a)(c + a - b) \leq c^2, (c+ab)(a+bc)a2(c + a - b)(a + b - c) \leq a^2 then
(a+bc)(b+ca)(c+ab)abc. (a + b - c)(b + c - a)(c + a - b) \leq a b c.
These imply the equality must be hold, so a=b=ca = b = c, contradiction since aa, bb, cc pairwise distinct. \square

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