Mock AIME I 2015 Problems/Problem 9

Since $a$ is a multiple of $b$ , let $a=kb$ . We can rewrite the first and second conditions as: (a) $(bk)bc$ is a perfect square, or $ck$ is a perfect square. (b) $b(k+7)c$ is a power of $2$ , so it follows that $b$ , $c$ , and $k+7$ are all powers of $2$ . Now we use casework on $k$ . Since $k+7$ is a power of $2$ , $k$ is $1, 9, 25, 57, 121,$ or $249$ or $k>500$ . If $k>500$ , then no value of $b$ makes $1\leq a, b\leq 500$ . If $k=57$ or $k=249$ , then no value of $c$ that is a power of $2$ makes $ck$ a perfect square. If $k=1$ , then $c=1, 4, 16, 256$ and $b=1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, 128, 256$ for $4\dot 9=36$ solutions. If $k=9$ , then $c=1, 4, 16, 256$ and $b=1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32$ for $4\dot 6=24$ solutions. If $k=25$ , then $c=1, 4, 16, 256$ and $b=1, 2, 4, 8, 16$ for $4\dot 5=20$ solutions. If $k=121$ , then $c=1, 4, 16, 256$ and $b=1, 2, 4$ for $4\dot 3=12$ solutions. This is a total of $\fbox{092}$ solutions.

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Mock AIME I 2015 Problems/Problem 9