An awesome Tricky Question from Stanford University entrance exam | Find the value of a=? & b=?

a wonderful maths problem solve. It is a tricky maths problems. Find the value of a&b?
#maths #mathematics #mathstricks
Harvard University
Oxford University
Yale University
Stanford University
State University

[@ragad3]

I like the method, but since “44” is a small number, it is much easier to just check a=0,1,2,3,4,5,6 directly. Perhaps this method will be more useful if we have a larger number on the right hand side which will make the brute-force approach more time-consuming.

[@rashel1]

Thank you so much❤️

[@pipscava]

Nice video! I got a couple of questions. If a and b are positive integers, isn't the (0,44) answer invalid? Or one number being non-zero is enough? Aren't you supposed to consider the cases where the first factor assumes the higher value? E.g. 2a+1 = 175 and 2a+4b-1=1.

[@ragad3]

@pipscava I believe the Z+ notation refers to the set of all nonnegative integers, meaning that zero is allowed. Sometimes, Z++ is used to indicate strictly positive integers. But yeah, the person in the video wrote “a,b>0” and still proceeded to include the a=0 solution in the end, which causes confusion. At 3:48, he asserts that 2a+1 (the first factor) is always smaller than 2a+4b-1 (the second factor), which is true when b>=1 (we can easily rule out b=0 as not being a solution). So, it is enough to just consider those three cases.

[@rashel1]

thanks ❤️

[@proffessorclueless]

The question was find the value not values.

[@rashel1]

😊😊