1989 AHSME Problems/Problem 11
Problem
Let ,
,
, and
be positive integers with
,
, and
. If
, the largest possible value for
is
Solution
Each of these integers is bounded above by the next one.
, so the maximum
is
.
, so the maximum
is
.
, so the maximum
is
.
, so the maximum
is
.
Note that the statement is true, but does not specify the distances between each pair of values.