Searching for Perfect Cubes

For n Z n\in\mathbb Z , find all values of n n such that

n 3 3 n 2 4 n 30 n 4 = k 3 \large\frac{n^3-3n^2-4n-30}{n-4}=k^3

where k k is also an integer. Enter your answer as the sum of all such values of n n and also add the number of values to this.


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The answer is 13.

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1 solution

Mark Hennings
May 2, 2018

We certainly want k 3 k^3 to be an integer, so we want n 4 n-4 to divide n 3 3 n 2 4 n 30 n^3 - 3n^2 - 4n - 30 . Since n 3 3 n 2 4 n 30 n 4 = n 2 + n 30 n 4 \frac{n^3 - 3n^2 - 4n - 30}{n-4} \; = \; n^2 + n - \frac{30}{n-4} we want n 4 n-4 to divide 30 30 . Thus n 4 n-4 must be one of ± 1 \pm1 , ± 2 \pm2 , ± 3 \pm3 , ± 5 \pm5 , ± 6 \pm6 , ± 10 \pm10 , ± 15 \pm15 and ± 30 \pm30 . A simple check finds that only two of these 16 options gives a cubic quotient k 3 k^3 . If n 4 = 1 n-4=1 then n = 5 n=5 , k = 0 k=0 , and if n 4 = 2 n-4=2 then n = 6 n=6 , k = 3 k=3 . Thus the answer is 5 + 6 + 2 = 13 5+6+2 = \boxed{13} .

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