1998 AIME Problems/Problem 14
Problem
An rectangular box has half the volume of an
rectangular box, where
and
are integers, and
What is the largest possible value of
?
Solution
![$\displaystyle 2mnp = (m+2)(n+2)(p+2)$](http://latex.artofproblemsolving.com/a/3/4/a3463af31c4d406d36f6d70199b204460a045d7d.png)
Let’s solve for :
![$(2mn)p = p(m+2)(n+2) + 2(m+2)(n+2)$](http://latex.artofproblemsolving.com/d/5/f/d5ff63a88caf1ac4552d9215366e18fab5e144d8.png)
![$p = \frac{2(m+2)(n+2)}{mn - 2n - 2m - 4}$](http://latex.artofproblemsolving.com/f/1/0/f108f6bdc2234b440849dafc9bf269e8e77d0e8d.png)
For the denominator, we will use a factoring trick (colloquially known as SFFT), which states that .
![$p = \frac{2(m+2)(n+2)}{(m-2)(n-2) - 8}$](http://latex.artofproblemsolving.com/b/8/4/b84a61a6b6fdd06d3924cbb85b37bbabef83703f.png)
Clearly, we want to minimize the denominator, so . The possible pairs of factors of
are
. These give
and
respectively. Substituting into the numerator, we see that the first pair gives
, while the second pair gives
. We can quickly test for the denominator assuming other values to convince ourselves that
is the best possible value for the denominator. Hence, the solution is
.
See also
1998 AIME (Problems • Answer Key • Resources) | ||
Preceded by Problem 13 |
Followed by Problem 15 | |
1 • 2 • 3 • 4 • 5 • 6 • 7 • 8 • 9 • 10 • 11 • 12 • 13 • 14 • 15 | ||
All AIME Problems and Solutions |