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Number theory Difficulty 2.8 Junior Find the answer

If mm and nn are positive integers that satisfy the equation 3m3=5n53m^{3}=5n^{5}, what is the smallest possible value for m+nm+n?

A number or a short expression. Fractions can be typed as 3/2, and spacing doesn't matter.

Solution

Since 3m33m^{3} is a multiple of 3, then 5n55n^{5} is a multiple of 3. Since 5 is not a multiple of 3 and 3 is a prime number, then n5n^{5} is a multiple of 3. Since n5n^{5} is a multiple of 3 and 3 is a prime number, then nn is a multiple of 3, which means that 5n55n^{5} includes at least 5 factors of 3. Since 5n55n^{5} includes at least 5 factors of 3, then 3m33m^{3} includes at least 5 factors of 3, which means that m3m^{3} is a multiple of 3, which means that mm is a multiple of 3. Using a similar analysis, both mm and nn must be multiples of 5. Therefore, we can write m=3a5bsm=3^{a}5^{b}s for some positive integers a,ba, b and ss and we can write n=3c5dtn=3^{c}5^{d}t for some positive integers c,dc, d and tt, where neither ss nor tt is a multiple of 3 or 5. From the given equation, 3m3=5n53m^{3}=5n^{5}, 3(3a5bs)3=5(3c5dt)53(3^{a}5^{b}s)^{3}=5(3^{c}5^{d}t)^{5}, 3×33a53bs3=5×35c55dt53 \times 3^{3a}5^{3b}s^{3}=5 \times 3^{5c}5^{5d}t^{5}, 33a+153bs3=35c55d+1t53^{3a+1}5^{3b}s^{3}=3^{5c}5^{5d+1}t^{5}. Since ss and tt are not multiples of 3 or 5, we must have 33a+1=35c3^{3a+1}=3^{5c} and 53b=55d+15^{3b}=5^{5d+1} and s3=t5s^{3}=t^{5}. Since ss and tt are positive and mm and nn are to be as small as possible, we can set s=t=1s=t=1, which satisfy s3=t5s^{3}=t^{5}. Since 33a+1=35c3^{3a+1}=3^{5c} and 53b=55d+15^{3b}=5^{5d+1}, then 3a+1=5c3a+1=5c and 3b=5d+13b=5d+1. Since mm and nn are to be as small as possible, we want to find the smallest positive integers a,b,c,da, b, c, d for which 3a+1=5c3a+1=5c and 3b=5d+13b=5d+1. Neither a=1a=1 nor a=2a=2 gives a value for 3a+13a+1 that is a multiple of 5, but a=3a=3 gives c=2c=2. Similarly, b=1b=1 does not give a value of 3b3b that equals 5d+15d+1 for any positive integer dd, but b=2b=2 gives d=1d=1. Therefore, the smallest possible values of mm and nn are m=3352=675m=3^{3}5^{2}=675 and n=3251=45n=3^{2}5^{1}=45, which gives m+n=720m+n=720.

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