How many pairs?

How many ordered pairs of integers ( a , b ) (a,b) are there such that 1 a + 1 b = 1 200 \frac{1}{a}+\frac{1}{b}=\frac{1}{200} ?

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The answer is 69.

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1 solution

( a 200 ) ( b 200 ) = 40000 = 2 6 × 5 4 (a-200)(b-200) = 40000 = 2^{6}\times 5^{4}

40000 40000 can distribute its factors to the first bracket, and then there's only 1 way to the second bracket. So we can count the number of factors.

Let a 200 = ± 2 k × 5 m a-200 = \pm 2^{k}\times 5^{m} , then b 200 = ± 2 6 k × 5 4 m b-200 = \pm 2^{6-k}\times 5^{4-m}

The number of ways = 2 × ( 7 × 5 ) = 70 2\times (7\times 5) = 70 ways. ( a , b a,b can switch numbers together so that we can multiply by 2)

But for k = 3 , m = 2 , negative sign k=3,m=2, \text{negative sign} we get a = 0 , b = 0 a = 0, b = 0 which is impossible.

Therefore, the number of solutions = 70 1 = 69 = 70 - 1 = \boxed{69} ~!~!~

Yeah! My first try was 70.

Satvik Golechha - 6 years, 11 months ago

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Be careful, always check the question. ^__^

Samuraiwarm Tsunayoshi - 6 years, 11 months ago

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Yup.... (I) will keep that in mind nex' time...

Satvik Golechha - 6 years, 11 months ago

Dang it, I tried 70! -.-

Noel Lo - 5 years, 10 months ago

I used a program to calculate results. I got 71 in the end instead of 69 because I forgot that a or b could not be 200 as dividing by 0 is undefined.

Stewart Feasby - 6 years, 1 month ago

We can also do it by finding the number of positive divisors i.e. (6+1)(4+1)=35

So the total no. of ordered pairs will be 70 but since (0,0) cannot be one, we subtract 1. Thus the answer comes as 69.

Satyajit Ghosh - 5 years, 7 months ago

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Exactly !!

Akshat Sharda - 5 years, 6 months ago

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