Trio Fighting

a b + b c + c a = 100 \large ab+bc+ca=100

Find the number of unordered triplets of non-negative integers ( a , b , c ) (a,b,c) satisfy the equation above.


The answer is 7.

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1 solution

Mark Hennings
Mar 27, 2017

Since we are looking for unordered triples, we might as well assume that 0 a b c 0 \le a \le b \le c . Then 100 = a b + a c + b c 3 a 2 100 = ab + ac + bc \ge 3a^2 , so that 0 a 5 0 \le a \le 5 .

If a = 0 a=0 we want b c = 100 bc = 100 , and we obtain 5 5 solutions: ( 0 , 1 , 100 ) (0,1,100) , ( 0 , 2 , 50 ) (0,2,50) , ( 0 , 4 , 25 ) (0,4,25) , ( 0 , 5 , 20 ) (0,5,20) , ( 0 , 10 , 10 ) (0,10,10) .

If a = 1 a=1 we want ( b + 1 ) ( c + 1 ) = 101 (b+1)(c+1) = 101 . This equation has no solutions with c b 1 c \ge b \ge 1 .

If a = 2 a=2 we want ( b + 2 ) ( c + 2 ) = 104 = 2 3 × 13 (b+2)(c+2) = 104 = 2^3 \times 13 , and we obtain 2 2 more solutions: ( 2 , 2 , 24 ) (2,2,24) , ( 2 , 6 , 11 ) (2,6,11) .

If a = 3 a=3 we want ( b + 3 ) ( c + 3 ) = 109 (b+3)(c+3) = 109 . This equation has no solutions with c b 3 c \ge b \ge 3 .

If a = 4 a=4 we want ( b + 4 ) ( c + 4 ) = 116 = 2 2 × 29 (b+4)(c+4) = 116 = 2^2 \times 29 . This equation has no solutions with c b 4 c \ge b \ge 4 .

If a = 5 a=5 we want ( b + 5 ) ( c + 5 ) = 125 = 5 3 (b+5)(c+5) = 125 = 5^3 . This equation has no solutions with c b 5 c \ge b \ge 5 .

Thus there are exactly 7 \boxed{7} unordered solutions.

Initially I was thinking to write '2017' in stead of '100'.Then I checked It will be bigger

Kushal Bose - 4 years, 2 months ago

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