Positive integers , and have the property that , and end in 4, 2, and 9, respectively. Compute the minimum possible value of .
Solution
This minimum is attained when . To show that we cannot do better, observe that must be even, so ends in 3 or 7. If , since and are even, it's clear is optimal. Otherwise, or , in which case can end in 2 only when ends in 8. However, no eighth power ends in 4, so we would need (and ), which makes the sum larger than 17.
Want a route through all this instead of an archive? The track
puts 2,000 problems in a working order, from AMC 10 level to the IMO shortlist.