Maths Olympiad Prep

Track / Stage 5 / 171 of 400 #771 of 1964

Problem 771

AIME late
Number theory Difficulty 5.4 Find the answer

Example 7 (2003 British Mathematical Olympiad) Find all positive integers a,b,ca, b, c satisfying (a!)(b!)=a!+b!+c!(a!) \cdot(b!)=a! + b! + c!.

Translate the above text into English, please keep the original text's line breaks and format, and output the translation result directly.

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

Official solution

Without loss of generality, assume aba \geqslant b, then the original equation becomes a!=a!b!+1+c!b!a!=\frac{a!}{b!}+1+\frac{c!}{b!}.
Since the three terms a!,a!b!,1a!, \frac{a!}{b!}, 1 in the above equation are integers, it follows that cbc \geqslant b.
Since each term on the right side is a positive integer, their sum is at least 3. Therefore, a3a \geqslant 3, and a!a! is even. Thus, a!b!\frac{a!}{b!} and c!b!\frac{c!}{b!} have exactly one term that is odd.
(1) Assume a!b!\frac{a!}{b!} is odd, then either a=ba=b, or a!b!=b+1\frac{a!}{b!}=b+1 and b+1b+1 is odd, a=b+1a=b+1.
(i) If a=ba=b, then a!=2+c!a!a!=2+\frac{c!}{a!},
When a=3a=3, we have b=3,c=4b=3, c=4,
When a>3a>3, since a!22(mod3)a!-2 \equiv-2(\bmod 3), so
c=a+1c=a+1 or a+2a+2 (otherwise c!a!=0(mod3)\frac{c!}{a!}=0(\bmod 3)).
c!a!=a+1\frac{c!}{a!}=a+1 or (a+1)(a+2)(a+1)(a+2),
a!=(a+3)a!=(a+3) or (a+1)(a+2)+2(a+1)(a+2)+2,
When a=4a=4 or 5, it does not satisfy (1).
When a6a \geqslant 6, it is clear that the left side of (1) is greater than the right side, so the original equation has no solution.
(ii) If a=b+1a=b+1, where bb is even,
then the original equation becomes (b+1)!=b+2+c!b!(b+1)!=b+2+\frac{c!}{b!},
Taking both sides modulo b+1b+1 gives c!b!1(mod(b+1))\frac{c!}{b!} \equiv-1(\bmod (b+1)).
Since a!b!\frac{a!}{b!} is odd, c!b!\frac{c!}{b!} is even, hence c>bc>b.
Thus, c!b!0(mod(b+1))\frac{c!}{b!} \equiv 0(\bmod (b+1)), which is a contradiction.
(2) Assume a!b!\frac{a!}{b!} is even, c!b!\frac{c!}{b!} is odd, then c=bc=b or c=b+1c=b+1 (bb is even).
(i) If c=bc=b, then the equation becomes (a!)(b!)=(a!)+2×(b!)(a!) \cdot(b!)=(a!)+2 \times(b!),
So a!b!(b!1)=2\frac{a!}{b!}(b!-1)=2. Hence a!b!=2,b!1=1\frac{a!}{b!}=2, b!-1=1.
Thus b=2,a!=4b=2, a!=4, which is a contradiction.
(ii) If c=b+1c=b+1, then the equation becomes (a!)(b!)=(a!)+(b+2)(b!)(a!)(b!)=(a!)+(b+2)(b!).
So (a!)(b!1)=(b+2)(b!)(a!)(b!-1)=(b+2)(b!).
Since (b!,b!1)=1(b!, b!-1)=1, it follows that (b!1)b+2(b!-1) \mid b+2.
Since bb is even, so b=2,a!=8b=2, a!=8, which is impossible.
In conclusion, the original equation has a unique solution a=3,b=3,c=4a=3, b=3, c=4.

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