1987 AIME Problems/Problem 7

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Problem

Let $\displaystyle [r,s]$ denote the least common multiple of positive integers $\displaystyle r$ and $\displaystyle s$. Find the number of ordered triples $\displaystyle (a,b,c)$ of positive integers for which $\displaystyle [a,b] = 1000$, $\displaystyle [b,c] = 2000$, and $\displaystyle [c,a] = 2000$.

Solution

It's clear that we must have $a = 2^j5^k$, $b = 2^m 5^n$ and $c = 2^p5^q$ for some nonnegative integers $j, k, m, n, p, q$. Dealing first with the powers of 2: from the given conditions, $\max(j, m) = 3$, $\max(m, p) = \max(p, j) = 4$. Thus we must have $p = 4$ and at least one of $m, j$ equal to 3. This gives 7 possible triples $(j, m, p)$: $(0, 3, 4), (1, 3, 4), (2, 3, 4), (3, 3, 4), (3, 2, 4), (3, 1, 4)$ and $(3, 0, 4)$.

Now, for the powers of 5: we have $\max(k, n) = \max(n, q) = \max(q, k) = 3$. Thus, at least two of $k, n, q$ must be equal to 3, and the other can take any value between 0 and 3. This gives us a total of 12 possible triples.

Since the exponents of 2 and 5 must satisfy these conditions independently, we have a total of $7 \cdot 12 = 084$ possible valid triples.


$\displaystyle 1000 = 2^35^3$ and $2000 = 2^45^3$. By looking at the prime factorization of $2000$, $c$ must have a factor of $2^4$. If $c$ has a factor of $5^3$, then there are two cases: either (1) $a$ or $b = 5^32^3$, or (2) one of $a$ and $b$ has a factor of $5^3$ and the other a factor of $2^3$. For case 1, the other number will be in the form of $2^x5^y$, so there are $4 \cdot 4 = 16$ possible such numbers; since this can be either $a$ or $b$ there are a total of $2(16)-1=31$ possibilities. For case 2, $a$ and $b$ are in the form of $2^35^x$ and $2^y5^3$, with $x < 3$ and $y < 3$ (if they were equal to 3, it would overlap with case 1). Thus, there are $2(3 \cdot 3) = 18$ cases.

If $c$ does not have a factor of $5^3$, then at least one of $a$ and $b$ must be $2^35^3$, and both must have a factor of $5^3$. Then, there are $4$ solutions possible just considering $a = 2^35^3$, and a total of $4 \cdot 2 - 1 = 7$ possibilities. Multiplying by three, as $0 \le c \le 2$, there are $7 \cdot 3 = 21$. Together, that makes $31 + 18 + 21 = 70$ solutions for $(a, b, c)$.

c a b solutions
$5^32^4$ $2^35^3$ $5^x2^y$ 31
$2^x5^3$ $2^35^y$ 18
$5^x2^4$ $2^35^3$ $5^y2^z$ 24

See also

1987 AIME (ProblemsAnswer KeyResources)
Preceded by
Problem 6
Followed by
Problem 8
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15
All AIME Problems and Solutions