If and are positive integers that satisfy the equation , what is the smallest possible value for ?
Solution
Since is a multiple of 3, then is a multiple of 3. Since 5 is not a multiple of 3 and 3 is a prime number, then is a multiple of 3. Since is a multiple of 3 and 3 is a prime number, then is a multiple of 3, which means that includes at least 5 factors of 3. Since includes at least 5 factors of 3, then includes at least 5 factors of 3, which means that is a multiple of 3, which means that is a multiple of 3. Using a similar analysis, both and must be multiples of 5. Therefore, we can write for some positive integers and and we can write for some positive integers and , where neither nor is a multiple of 3 or 5. From the given equation, , , , . Since and are not multiples of 3 or 5, we must have and and . Since and are positive and and are to be as small as possible, we can set , which satisfy . Since and , then and . Since and are to be as small as possible, we want to find the smallest positive integers for which and . Neither nor gives a value for that is a multiple of 5, but gives . Similarly, does not give a value of that equals for any positive integer , but gives . Therefore, the smallest possible values of and are and , which gives .