Maths Olympiad Prep

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Algebra Difficulty 5.3 AIME, harder Find the answer

Find the unique pair of positive integers (a,b)(a, b) with a<ba<b for which 2020aa2020bb=2\frac{2020-a}{a} \cdot \frac{2020-b}{b}=2

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

Solution

If either aa or bb is larger than 2020, then both must be for the product to be positive. However, the resulting product would be less than 1, so this case is impossible. Now, we see that (2020aa,2020bb)\left(\frac{2020-a}{a}, \frac{2020-b}{b}\right) must be in the form (xy,2yx)\left(\frac{x}{y}, \frac{2 y}{x}\right), in some order, for relatively prime positive integers xx and yy. Then 2020a=x+yy\frac{2020}{a}=\frac{x+y}{y} and 2020b=x+2yx\frac{2020}{b}=\frac{x+2 y}{x}, so x+yx+y and x+2yx+2 y are relatively prime factors of 2020. Since x+y<x+2y<2(x+y)x+y<x+2 y<2(x+y), the only possibility is x+y=4,x+2y=5x+y=4, x+2 y=5. Thus, (x,y)=(3,1)(x, y)=(3,1), and (2020aa,2020bb)=(3,23)\left(\frac{2020-a}{a}, \frac{2020-b}{b}\right)=\left(3, \frac{2}{3}\right) because a<ba<b. Solving gives (a,b)=(505,1212)(a, b)=(505,1212).

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