Given that a , b and c are distinct integers from 1 to 9 inclusive.
What is the maximum value of a × b × c a + b + c ?
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The better way to express why we want the smallest integers is to say that
If b , c are fixed, then to maximize a 1 ( b 1 + c 1 ) + b c 1 , we just need to minimize a .
By isolating the variable, we avoid having to be concerned with "partial" effects from changing other variables.
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Could you please explain again ? I didn't understood.
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Which part of the claim (in the box) do you not understand? Isn't it clearly stated?
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a × b × c a + b + c = a b c a + a b c b + a b c c = b c 1 + a c 1 + a b 1
Now, we know that the larger the values of the denominators, the smaller the value of the expression.
Thus, we are looking for the smallest possible values of a b , a c and b c
Since we know that a , b and c are distinct integers from 1 to 9 inclusive, we pick the 3 smallest integers for a , b and c .
a = 1 , b = 2 , c = 3 (or you can assign the values differently, it doesn't matter as long as there are these 3 numbers)
The maximum value of the expression
= 2 ( 3 ) 1 + 1 ( 3 ) 1 + 1 ( 2 ) 1 = 6 1 + 3 1 + 2 1 = 6 1 + 6 2 + 6 3 = 6 6 = 1