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2007 AMC 10B Problem 25

Problem 25 of 25HarderNumber Theory

How many pairs of positive integers (a,b)(a,b) are there such that aa and bb have no common factors greater than 11 and ab+14b9a\frac{a}{b}+\frac{14b}{9a} is an integer?

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Solution

Combining, the expression is 9a2+14b29ab.\dfrac{9a^2+14b^2}{9ab}. For this to be an integer, aa must divide 9a2+14b2,9a^2+14b^2, hence 14b214b^2 is divisible by a.a. Since gcd(a,b)=1,\gcd(a,b)=1, we get that 1414 is divisible by a.a. Similarly, 9a29a^2 is divisible by b,b, so 99 is divisible by b.b. So a{1,2,7,14}a\in\{1,2,7,14\} and b{1,3,9}.b\in\{1,3,9\}. Checking these, only b=3b=3 makes the expression an integer for each allowed a.a. The valid pairs are (1,3),(1,3), (2,3),(2,3), (7,3),(7,3), and (14,3),(14,3), for a total of 4.4. Thus, the correct answer is A.

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Concepts: divisibility · greatest common divisor · Diophantine Equation

Problem text and solution from the LIVE past-contest archive. See also the AoPS wiki page for community solutions.