Strange function

Level pending

The function f ( n ) f(n) , for any n n , gives the number of unordered pairs of positive integers such that their product is n n times their sum. What is f ( 2013 ) f(2013) ?


The answer is 27.

This section requires Javascript.
You are seeing this because something didn't load right. We suggest you, (a) try refreshing the page, (b) enabling javascript if it is disabled on your browser and, finally, (c) loading the non-javascript version of this page . We're sorry about the hassle.

1 solution

Sean Elliott
Dec 23, 2013

Begin with the equation x y = 2013 x + 2013 y xy=2013x+2013y . From this we obtain x ( y 2013 ) = 2013 y x = 2013 y y 2013 = 2013 + 201 3 2 y 2013 x(y-2013)=2013y\Rightarrow x=\frac{2013y}{y-2013}=2013+\frac{2013^2}{y-2013} . Set k = y 2013 k=y-2013 ; thus k k is an integer. For x x to be an integer, we must have that 201 3 2 k \frac{2013^2}{k} . Any k k will determine a y y and thus an x x , so we only need to find the number of k k s. However, this is just the number of divisors of 201 3 2 = 3 2 1 1 2 6 1 2 ( 2 + 1 ) ( 2 + 1 ) ( 2 + 1 ) = 27 2013^2=3^211^261^2\Rightarrow(2+1)(2+1)(2+1)=\boxed{27} .

0 pending reports

×

Problem Loading...

Note Loading...

Set Loading...