Number Theory problem 2 by Dhaval Furia

What is the largest positive integer n n such that n 2 + 7 n + 12 n 2 n 12 \dfrac {n^{2} + 7n + 12}{n^{2} - n - 12} is also a positive integer?

6 6 12 12 16 16 8 8

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1 solution

Chew-Seong Cheong
May 14, 2020

n 2 + 7 n + 12 n 2 n 12 = ( n + 3 ) ( n + 4 ) ( n + 3 ) ( n 4 ) = n + 4 n 4 = 1 + 8 n 4 \begin{aligned} \frac {n^2+7n+12}{n^2-n-12} & = \frac {(n+3)(n+4)}{(n+3)(n-4)} = \frac {n+4}{n-4} = 1 + \frac 8{n-4} \end{aligned} . For n 2 + 7 n + 12 n 2 n 12 \dfrac {n^2+7n+12}{n^2-n-12} to be a positive integer, 8 8 must be divisible by n 4 n-4 . And the largest n n is when n 4 = 8 n-4=8 n = 12 \implies n = \boxed{12} .

Similar reasoning, nice!

Mahdi Raza - 1 year ago

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