Arekonda Srihari

CAT Preparation Community 10y ago

1/a+1/b+1/c=3/4. If a,b and c are natural numbers, how many such triplets (a,b,c) exist?

3

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

Shivankan Gupta 10y ago

Hi,
Can you please elaborate the question? Is it 1 X b or 1/b and 1 X c or 1/c. Are their any conditions on a,b,c such as they are intergers, natural numbers etc?

deekondasaikrishna shankara 10y ago

25

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