1972 USAMO Problems/Problem 1
Problem
The symbols and
denote the greatest common divisor and least common multiple, respectively, of the positive integers
. For example,
and
. Prove that
![$\frac{[a,b,c]^2}{[a,b][b,c][c,a]}=\frac{(a,b,c)^2}{(a,b)(b,c)(c,a)}$](http://latex.artofproblemsolving.com/a/3/7/a3797d87dfc7855e74fd6a01e4f48819256cecb4.png)
Solutions
Solution 1
As all of the values in the given equation are positive, we can invert it to get an equivalent equation:
![$\frac{[a,b][b,c][c,a]}{[a,b,c]^2}=\frac{(a,b)(b,c)(c,a)}{(a,b,c)^2}$](http://latex.artofproblemsolving.com/e/c/d/ecd36e521e220cc8d42f8555801b6efbfad9c570.png)
We will now prove that both sides are equal, and that they are integers.
Consider an arbitrary prime . Let
,
, and
be the greatest powers of
that divide
,
, and
.
WLOG let
.
We can now, for each of the expressions in our equation, easily determine the largest power of that divides it. In this way we will find that the largest power of
that divides the left hand side is
, and the largest power of
that divides the right hand side is
.
Solution 2
Let ,
,
, and
. Then it follows that
are pairwise coprime and
,
, and
, with
pairwise coprime as well. Then, we wish to show
which can be checked fairly easily.
Alternate solutions are always welcome. If you have a different, elegant solution to this problem, please add it to this page.
See Also
1972 USAMO (Problems • Resources) | ||
Preceded by First Question |
Followed by Problem 2 | |
1 • 2 • 3 • 4 • 5 | ||
All USAMO Problems and Solutions |
The problems on this page are copyrighted by the Mathematical Association of America's American Mathematics Competitions.