Primes.

Algebra Level 3

Find all triples ( x , y , z ) \large (x,y,z) such that x , y , z , x y , y z , x z \large x, y, z, x - y, y - z, x - z are all prime positive integers. Enter your answer as x + y + z \large x+y+z .

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1 solution

Hana Wehbi
Sep 24, 2017

Note that since x y , y z , x z x - y, y - z, x - z are positive, we must have x > y > z x > y > z .

We cannot have more than one of x , y , z x, y, z be even, since there is only one even prime. But if x , y , z x, y, z are all odd, then x y x - y and x z x - z are distinct even primes, a contradiction. Therefore exactly one of x , y , z x, y, z is an even prime, and since 2 2 is the smallest prime, we must have z = 2 z = 2 .

Thus x x and y y are both odd. But then x y x-y is even and prime, so x y = 2 x-y = 2 and hence x = y + 2 x=y+2 . Therefore our triple is ( y + 2 , y , 2 ) (y+2, y, 2) . This means that all y + 2 , y , y 2 y+2, y, y-2 are prime. But at least one of these is a multiple of 3 3 , and the only multiple of 3 3 that is prime is 3 3 . The only possibility is y 2 = 3 y = 5 , y + 2 = 7 y-2=3\implies y=5, y+2=7 .

Therefore our triple is ( x , y , z ) = ( 7 , 5 , 2 ) (x, y, z) = (7,5,2) .

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