How many pairs of natural numbers ( x , y ) are there for which x + y = x y ?
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By A.M. G.M. Inequality,
x y ≤ 4 ( x + y ) 2 = x + y
Case 1: 4 ( x + y ) 2 < x + y
By simplifying, we get x + y < 4 , since we can cancel ( x + y ) from both sides, as it is a positive natural number.
Only combinations are ( 1 , 1 ) , ( 2 , 1 ) , ( 1 , 2 ) , none of which satisfy the equation.
Case 2: 4 ( x + y ) 2 = x + y
Equality only holds when x = y , in the A.M. G.M. Inequality
Thus, the only combination is ( 2 , 2 ) , which satisfies the equation.
Thus, there is only 1 solution.
It is given that: x + y = x y taking ( m o d x ) , we have x ∣ y . Taking ( m o d y ) , we have y ∣ x . So, we have x = y . Substituting in our original eqn, we have x = y = 0 and x = y = 2 . Since x , y are natural, x = y = 2 is the only solution. So, the number of solutions is 1
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x + y x y − x − y x y − x − y + 1 ( x − 1 ) ( y − 1 ) x − 1 = 1 ( x , y ) = x y = 0 = 1 = 1 , y − 1 = 1 = ( 2 , 2 )
The other solution is ( 0 , 0 ) which doesn't satisfy the "natural numbers" requirement.