Maths Olympiad Prep

Library / /487 of 860

Algebra Difficulty 5.2 AIME, harder Find the answer

Find the value of 1a<b<c12a3b5c\sum_{1 \leq a<b<c} \frac{1}{2^{a} 3^{b} 5^{c}} (i.e. the sum of 12a3b5c\frac{1}{2^{a} 3^{b} 5^{c}} over all triples of positive integers (a,b,c)(a, b, c) satisfying a<b<ca<b<c).

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

Solution

Let x=bax=b-a and y=cby=c-b so that b=a+xb=a+x and c=a+x+yc=a+x+y. Then 2a3b5c=2a3a+x5a+x+y=30a15x5y2^{a} 3^{b} 5^{c}=2^{a} 3^{a+x} 5^{a+x+y}=30^{a} 15^{x} 5^{y} and a,x,ya, x, y are any positive integers. Thus 1ab<c12a3b5c=1a,x,y130a15x5y=1a130a1x115x1y15y=12911414=11624\begin{aligned} \sum_{1 \leq a \leq b<c} \frac{1}{2^{a} 3^{b} 5^{c}} & =\sum_{1 \leq a, x, y} \frac{1}{30^{a} 15^{x} 5^{y}} \\ & =\sum_{1 \leq a} \frac{1}{30^{a}} \sum_{1 \leq x} \frac{1}{15^{x}} \sum_{1 \leq y} \frac{1}{5^{y}} \\ & =\frac{1}{29} \cdot \frac{1}{14} \cdot \frac{1}{4} \\ & =\frac{1}{1624} \end{aligned}

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.

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