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Baltic Way 2018 · Problem 20

Number Theory

Find all the triples of positive integers (a,b,c)(a, b, c) for which the number

(a+b)4c+(b+c)4a+(c+a)4b\frac{(a+b)^{4}}{c}+\frac{(b+c)^{4}}{a}+\frac{(c+a)^{4}}{b}

is an integer and a+b+ca+b+c is a prime.

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Topics

Primes · Diophantine equations

Solutions

Solution

Answer (1,1,1),(1,2,2),(2,3,6)(1,1,1),(1,2,2),(2,3,6).

Let p=a+b+cp=a+b+c, then a+b=p−c,b+c=p−a,c+a=p−ba+b=p-c, b+c=p-a, c+a=p-b and

(p−c)4c+(p−a)4a+(p−b)4b\frac{(p-c)^{4}}{c}+\frac{(p-a)^{4}}{a}+\frac{(p-b)^{4}}{b}

is a non-negative integer. By expanding brackets we obtain that the number p4(1a+1b+1c)p^{4}\left(\frac{1}{a}+\frac{1}{b}+\frac{1}{c}\right) is integer, too. But the numbers a,b,ca, b, c are not divisible by pp, therefore the number 1a+1b+1c\frac{1}{a}+\frac{1}{b}+\frac{1}{c} is (non negative) integer. That is possible for the triples (1,1,1),(1,2,2),(2,3,6)(1,1,1),(1,2,2),(2,3,6) only.

Contest context

Results from Baltic Way 2018

11 teams

Mean score
3.6 / 5
Scores of 4 or 5
8 / 11
Estonia
5 / 5

Score distribution

01
10
22
30
44
54
All team scores
TeamScore
Germany5 / 5
St. Petersburg4 / 5
Denmark4 / 5
Estonia5 / 5
Sweden2 / 5
Norway2 / 5
Lithuania5 / 5
Finland4 / 5
Latvia5 / 5
Poland4 / 5
Iceland0 / 5