We call the pair of positive integers a happy pair if the greatest common divisor of and is a perfect square. For example, is a happy pair because the greatest common divisor of 20 and 24 is 4. Suppose that is a positive integer such that is a happy pair. What is the number of possible values of with ?
Solution
Suppose that is a happy pair. We find the prime factorization of 205800: . Note also that . Let be the greatest common divisor of 205800 and . We want to find the number of possible values of for which is a perfect square. Since both 5 and 7 are prime divisors of 205800 and , then 5 and 7 are both prime divisors of . For to be a perfect square, 5 and 7 must both divide an even number of times. Since the prime powers of 5 and 7 in the prime factorization of 205800 are and , respectively, then for to be a perfect square, it must be the case that and are factors of . Since , then for some positive integer . Since , then which gives . We now know that is the gcd of and . What further information does this give us about ? - cannot be divisible by 3, otherwise would have a factor of and cannot have a factor of which would mean that is not a perfect square. - cannot be divisible by 7, otherwise has a factor of and no larger power of 7, in which case would not be a perfect square. - If is divisible by 2, then the prime factorization of must include . In other words, the prime factorization of cannot include or . - can be divisible by 5 since even if is divisible by 5, the power of 5 in is already limited by the power of 5 in 205800. - can be divisible by prime numbers other than or 7 since 205800 is not and so the gcd will not be affected. Finally, we consider two cases: is divisible by but not by a larger power of 2, and is not divisible by 2. Case 1: is divisible by but not by a larger power of 2 Here, for some odd positive integer . Since , then which means that . Knowing that cannot be divisible by 3 or by 7, this means that the possible values of are . Each of these values of produces a value of that satisfies the conditions in the five bullets above. There are thus 6 values of in this case. Case 2: is not divisible by 2 Here, is odd. Knowing that cannot be divisible by 3 or by 7 and that , this means that the possible values of are: . There are thus 24 values of in this case. In total, there are 30 values of and so there are 30 possible values of for which is a happy pair.