Mohit Gera
CAT Preparation Community 9y ago
1/a + 1/b + 1/c = 3/4 how many ordered triplets of (a,b,c) are there??
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Mohit Gera
CAT Preparation Community 9y ago
1/a + 1/b + 1/c = 3/4 how many ordered triplets of (a,b,c) are there??
Maruti KonduriFaculty 9y ago
Let us try to enumerate all the cases and count the number of triplets.
Without loss of generality, we can assume that a <= b <= c.
Therefore, the maximum value 'a' can take is 4.
In the case where a = 2, 1/b + 1/c = 1/4 or c = 4*b/(4-b)
The only possible natural number solutions to this are b = 5, c = 20; b = 6, c= 12 and b = c = 8
In the case where a = 3, 1/b + 1/c = 5/12 or c = 12*b/(5b-12)
The only possible natural number solutions to this are b = 3, c = 12 and b = 4, c= 6
In the case where a = 4, 1/b + 1/c = 1/2 and the only possible case is a=b=c=4
So, let us write all the possible triplets again (2,5,20); (2,6,12); (2,8,8); (3,3,12); (3,4,6) and (4,4,4)
Hence, the number of triplets possible is 6 + 6 + 3 + 3 + 6 + 1 = 25
Aashka Tewari 9y ago
Just a ask here, do we take a,b,c as to always >0, there is a possibility of set having (1,-2,4) appears as well.
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