Maths Olympiad Prep

Track / Stage 4 / 87 of 340 #347 of 1964

Problem 347

AMC 12 late, AIME early
Number theory Difficulty 4.7 Find the answer

6. Let p,q,2p1q,2q1pp, q, \frac{2 p-1}{q}, \frac{2 q-1}{p} all be integers, and p>1,q>p>1, q>
1. Then p+q=p+q= \qquad .

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

Official solution

6. p+q=8p+q=8.

From 2q1p,2p1q\frac{2 q-1}{p}, \frac{2 p-1}{q} both being positive integers, we know that one of them must be less than 2. Otherwise, 2q1p>2,2p1q>2\frac{2 q-1}{p}>2, \frac{2 p-1}{q}>2, leading to 2p1+2q1>2p+2q2 p-1+2 q-1>2 p+2 q, which is a contradiction. Assume 0<2q1p<20<\frac{2 q-1}{p}<2, then it must be that 2q1=p2 q-1=p. It is easy to see that q=3,p=5q=3, p=5, thus p+q=8p+q=8.

Note: The original problem statement has a typo in the final result, which should be p+q=8p+q=8 instead of p+q=3p+q=3.

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