Maths Olympiad Prep

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Number theory Difficulty 5.4 AIME, harder Find the answer

22. Find all positive integer triples {a,b,c}\{a, b, c\}, satisfying the conditions: ab(modc),bc(moda),ca(modb)a \equiv b(\bmod c), \quad b \equiv c(\bmod a), \quad c \equiv a(\bmod b).

A number or a short expression. Spacing and $ signs are ignored.

Solution

22. If a,b,ca, b, c satisfy the conditions, then for any k1,ka,kb,kck \geqslant 1, k a, k b, k c also satisfy them, so we can first assume (a,b,c)=1(a, b, c)=1, and 1abc1 \leqslant a \leqslant b \leqslant c. From this and cabc \mid a-b we deduce a=ba=b, and then by aca \mid c and (a,b,c)=1(a, b, c)=1 we deduce a=b=1a=b=1. Therefore, all solutions are {1,1,c},c\{1,1, c\}, c being any positive integer.

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Source: NuminaMath-1.5, licensed Apache-2.0. Statement and solution reproduced as published; topic and difficulty added by this site.