Shrajan's geometric progression

Algebra Level 2

Three positive integers are in geometric progression, and have a sum of 19 19 and a product of 216 216 . What is the least common multiple (LCM) of the three integers?

This problem is posed by Shrajan V.


The answer is 36.

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2 solutions

Krishna Ar
Jun 12, 2014

The numbers are in Geometric Progression. This indicates that they are of the form- a , a r , a r 2 a, ar , ar^{2} . Their Product is a 3 r 3 = 216 a^{3}r^{3} = 216 . Thus we get, a r ar =6. Rewriting the solution for their sum, that is- a + a r + a r 2 = 19 a+ar+ar^{2}=19 in terms of a r ar , we get that the terms are 4,6,9. Their LCM is 36 36

Please upvote my solution if you liked it

A more shortcut, Take the terms in GP as a r , a , a r ar,a,\frac{a}{r} , So u get directly a a from product, nd r r from the second step

Dinesh Chavan - 6 years, 10 months ago

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Yeah..actually I had used it but didnt mention that method...:( (I guess that's bcos I did this quesiton mentally, but while writing-I used this method))

Krishna Ar - 6 years, 10 months ago
William Isoroku
Dec 11, 2014

Since the numbers are in geometric progression, we can express them as: a d , a , a d \frac { a }{ d } ,a,ad

Multiplying them gives us a 3 { a }^{ 3 } which is 216 216 ======= a = 6 a=6

Now we have 6 d , 6 , 6 d \frac { 6 }{ d } ,6,6d

Adding them gives us 6 d + 6 + 6 d = 19 \frac { 6 }{ d } +6+6d=19

This simplifies to 6 d 2 13 d + 6 = 0 { 6d }^{ 2 }-13d+6=0 ========= x = 1.5 x=1.5

Substitution gives us the three numbers: 4 , 6 , 9 4,6,9 with a common ratio of 1.5 1.5

the l c m lcm of these numbers is 36 \boxed{36}

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