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Algebra Difficulty 4.8 AIME Find the answer United States

The expression 2021202020202021\frac{2021}{2020} - \frac{2020}{2021} is equal to the fraction pq\frac{p}{q} in which pp and qq are positive integers whose greatest common divisor is 1. What is pp?

Pick one

Solution

The given expression equals
2021202020202021=202122020220202021 \frac{2021}{2020} - \frac{2020}{2021} = \frac{2021^2 - 2020^2}{2020 \cdot 2021}

=(2021+2020)(20212020)20202021=404120202021.\begin{aligned} &= \frac{(2021 + 2020)(2021 - 2020)}{2020 \cdot 2021} \\ &= \frac{4041}{2020 \cdot 2021}. \end{aligned}

Because 404122020=14041 - 2 \cdot 2020 = 1, it follows that 40414041 and 20202020 cannot have a common divisor greater than 11. Similarly, because 404122021=14041 - 2 \cdot 2021 = -1, it follows that 40414041 and 20212021 cannot have a common divisor greater than 11. Hence 404120202021\frac{4041}{2020 \cdot 2021} is in simplest terms, and the requested numerator is 40414041.

Let n=2020n = 2020. Then the given fraction equals
ENV0 n+1nnn+1=(n+1)2n(n+1)n2n(n+1)=n2+2n+1n(n+1)n2n(n+1)=2n+1n(n+1).\begin{aligned} \frac{n+1}{n} - \frac{n}{n+1} &= \frac{(n+1)^2}{n(n+1)} - \frac{n^2}{n(n+1)} \\ &= \frac{n^2 + 2n + 1}{n(n+1)} - \frac{n^2}{n(n+1)} \\ &= \frac{2n + 1}{n(n+1)}. \end{aligned}
Note that if dd is a divisor of both aa and a+ba+b, then dd is also a divisor of their difference, bb. Because nn and n+1n+1 have no common divisors greater than 11, it follows that 2n+12n+1 can have no common divisors greater than 11 with either nn or n+1n+1. Thus p=2n+1=4041p = 2n + 1 = 4041.

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Source: MathNet, licensed CC-BY-4.0. Statement reproduced verbatim; metadata (topic, difficulty) added by this project.