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How many pairs of positive integers ( m ; n ) (m;n) are there such that :

1 m + 1 n 1 m n = 2 5 \frac{1}{m}+\frac{1}{n}-\frac{1}{mn}=\frac{2}{5} ?


The answer is 4.

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1 solution

Lorenc Bushi
Jan 5, 2014

If we multiply throughout the equation by 10 m n 10mn and by rearranging the terms we get :

4 m n 10 n 10 m + 10 = 0 4mn-10n-10m+10=0 which is equivalent to:

4 m n 10 n 10 m + 25 = 15 4mn-10n-10m+25=15 .Observe that the left side can be factored as followed:

( 2 m 5 ) ( 2 n 5 ) = 15 (2m-5)(2n-5)=15 .Calculating the negative numbers 15 15 can be written in 4 4 diffferent ways which are 15 = 15 1 15=15*1

15 = 3 5 15=3*5

15 = ( 15 ) ( 1 ) 15=(-15)(-1)

15 = ( 3 ) ( 5 ) 15=(-3)(-5) If we suppose n m n≥m then we will have the pairs ( m ; n ) = ( 4 ; 5 ) , ( 3 ; 10 ) , ( 0 ; 1 ) , ( 5 ; 2 ) (m;n)=(4;5),(3;10),(0;1),(-5;2) ,but the last two couples are not acceptable. If we suppose n < m n<m we will obtain ( m ; n ) = ( 5 ; 4 ) , ( 10 ; 3 ) , ( 1 ; 0 ) , ( 2 , 5 ) (m;n)=(5;4),(10;3),(1;0),(2,-5) but again the last two couples are not acceptable and therefore we have 4 \boxed{4} couples which are ( m ; n ) = ( 3 ; 10 ) , ( 10 ; 3 ) , ( 4 ; 5 ) , ( 5 ; 4 ) (m;n)=(3;10),(10;3),(4;5),(5;4) .

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