Maths Olympiad Prep

Track / Stage 5 / 219 of 400 #819 of 1964

Problem 819

AIME late
Number theory Difficulty 5.5 Find the answer

Let's determine the positive prime numbers p>q>rp>q>r for which

p2(q+r)2=136 p^{2}-(q+r)^{2}=136

A number or a short expression. Spacing, $ signs and \frac vs / are all fine.

Official solution

Solution. Let's transform the left side of the equality into a product, and decompose the number on the right side into prime factors:

(p+q+r)(pqr)=17222 (p+q+r)(p-q-r)=17 \cdot 2 \cdot 2 \cdot 2

The factors on the left side are built from the numbers on the right side. These can be: 178,34417 \cdot 8, 34 \cdot 4, or 68268 \cdot 2, or 1361136 \cdot 1. From the condition p+q+r>pqr>0p+q+r > p-q-r > 0 and (p+q+r)+(pqr)=2p(p+q+r) + (p-q-r) = 2p is even, only the second and third cases can apply.

For

p+q+r=34 and pqr=4}2p=38 and p=19 \left.\begin{array}{l} p+q+r=34 \quad \text { and } \\ p-q-r=4 \end{array}\right\} \Longrightarrow 2 p=38 \text { and } p=19

furthermore, q+r=15q+r=15, which is possible if and only if q=13q=13 and r=2r=2. This is thus a solution to the equation.

Finally, if

!

but this is not a prime number.

The solution to the problem is the triplet 19,13,219, 13, 2.

Source: NuminaMath-1.5, licensed Apache-2.0. Statement and solution reproduced as published; topic, difficulty and ordering added by this site.