Harmonic Mean Solution

468 Views Asked by At

The harmonic mean of two positive numbers is the reciprocal of the arithmetic mean of their reciprocals. For how many ordered pairs of positive integers $(x, y)$ with $x < y$ is the harmonic mean equal to $6^{20}$?

I don't really know how to go about this problem..

1

There are 1 best solutions below

0
On BEST ANSWER

Let $n=\frac{6^{20}}{2} $, note that the harmonic mean is $\frac{2 x y}{x+y}$, then the equation can be written as : $$n(x+y)=xy\Longleftrightarrow (x-n)(y-n)=n^2 .$$ if the number of divisors of $n^2$ is $s$ then the answer is $\lfloor \frac{s}{2}\rfloor$ (since $x>y$).

In this case $n=2^{19}\cdot 3^{20}$, then $n^2=2^{38}3^{40}$, and the $s=39\cdot41$, the answer is then $\boxed{758}$.