Let and prime numbers such that their sum is an even number. Evaluate .
Source: Galois-Noether Contest
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Since the sum of the given primes is even, one of them must be 2 .
What should be noticed is that the expression to be evaluated resembles the Elementary Symmetric Polynomials and hence the Vieta's Formulas .
That said, let P ( x ) a polynomial whose roots are p , q , r .
Using the Vieta's Formula we can construct that polynomial as
P ( x ) = x 3 − ( p + q + r ) x 2 + ( p q + q r + r p ) x − p q r
Since 2 is one of the roots, we have P ( 2 ) = 0 .
If we substitute x = 2 ,
P ( 2 ) = 8 − ( p + q + r ) 4 + ( p q + q r + r p ) 2 + p q r = 0
Thus,
p q r − 2 ( p q + q r + r p ) + 4 ( p + q + r ) = 8