If , and are prime numbers such that + = 73, what is the least possible value of + + ?
Answers
Answer:
The answer to this question would be: p+q+r = 2 + 17 + 39= 58
In this question, p q r is a prime number. Most of the prime number is an odd number. If p q r all odd number, it wouldn't be possible to get 73 since
odd x odd + odd= odd + odd = even
Since 73 is an odd number, it is clear that one of the p q r needs to be an even number.
There is only one odd prime number which is 2. If you put 2 in the r the result would be:
pq+2= 73
pq= 71
There will be no solution for pq since 71 is prime number. That mean 2 must be either p or q. Let say that 2 is p, then the equation would be: 2q + r= 73
The least possible value of p+q+r would be achieved by founding the highest q since its coefficient is 2 times r. Maximum q would be 73/2= 36.5 so you can try backward from that. Since q= 31, q=29, q=23 and q=19 wouldn't result in a prime number r, the least result would be q=17
r= 73-2q
r= 73- 2(17)
r= 73-34=39
p+q+r = 2 + 17 + 39= 58