Consider the equation
a 1 + b 1 + c 1 = d 1
where a , b , c , d are distinct positive integers, at least 3 of which are prime.
Up to a permutation of the variables, there is a unique solution to this problem. Find a + b + c + d .
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Yeah, 'existence and uniqueness' proofs have always been my favorites. :P
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It's not too hard.
First, show that a , b , c can't all be prime. Suppose not, then we have d ( a b + b c + c a ) = a b c . Taking mod a , we get d b c ≡ 0 ( m o d a ) , and so a ∣ d . By similarity, a b c ∣ d . But a 1 + b 1 + c 1 = a b c d ∗ 1 is absurd.
WLOG, let c be the non-prime. Clearly, c = 1 , so c is composite. Let's denote it by x , and a , b , d are all prime. We have
d ( a b + b x + x a ) = a b x
Since LHS is divisible by d , hence d ∣ x . Since RHS is divisible by a , hence a ∣ d b x ⇒ a ∣ x . Since RHS is divisible by b , hence b ∣ d x a ⇒ b ∣ x . Since a , b , d are distinct primes, thus a b d ∣ x . Let x = a b d x ∗ .
This gives us d ( a b + b a b d x ∗ + a a b d x ∗ ) = a b a b d x ∗ . Factoring out a b d , we get 1 + d b x ∗ + d a x ∗ = a b x ∗ . Taking modulus x ∗ , we conclude that x ∗ = 1 , so x = a b d .
Now, we have
1
+
d
b
+
d
a
=
a
b
, or that
(
a
−
d
)
(
b
−
d
)
=
d
2
+
1
.
Case 1: If
d
=
2
, then we have
(
a
−
2
)
(
b
−
2
)
=
5
, which gives us the solution
{
a
,
b
}
=
{
3
,
7
}
. Check that
2
,
3
,
7
are all primes.
Case 2: If
d
=
2
, then since
d
is prime, so
d
is odd. Clearly,
a
and
b
have to be primes larger than
d
, so they are also odd. Thus
a
−
d
and
b
−
d
are both even, so
4
∣
(
a
−
d
)
(
b
−
d
)
. But we know that
4
∣
d
2
+
1
, hence there are no solutions in this case.
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This looks great, Calvin. For the most part it is the same approach as what I had in mind but your presentation is far more concise than mine would have been.
I just made a program.
Yeah, numbers will be 3,7,42,2
Hint: Consider Sylvester's sequence ....
As for a proof of the uniqueness of the solution, that's the tough part. When I have time I will type that out, but in the meantime, any elegant proofs would be welcome.
Why is the problem named like this?
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Maybe Rita's theorem can help us prove this...? (what's wrong with my brain)
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Haha. Well, Rita the dog came up with many interesting questions but no theorems that I can recall. :)
"Rita the dog" is the name of a participant on another math site I used to spend time on. The avatar was a picture of a rather old and sleepy pit bull dog. I think the actual participant was a young man from Mexico, but it was always fun to think that it was the dog who was posing all the interesting questions. :)
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What site was that ? :) Can you please share it?
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@Sanjana Nedunchezian – The site is Yahoo! Answers. It's not as interesting a site as it used to be; Brilliant is the better site now. :)
It is easy to see all a,b,c are not primes so b,c,d are primes also, as a factor of bcd so doing case work (5cases) gives the unique solution 3,7,2,42
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Yes. Finding the numbers a , b , c , d = 3 , 7 , 4 2 , 2 wasn't too difficult, but proving that this is unique is really hard.