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Closest factor pair of 1234567890

Question

Among all ways of writing 1234567890=a⋅b1234567890 = a \cdot b with a,ba, b positive integers, choose the pair whose difference ∣a−b∣|a-b| is as small as possible. What is a+ba+b for that pair? (Factoring the number into primes will help.)

Short answer

70297. Since 1234567890=2⋅32⋅5⋅3607⋅38031234567890 = 2\cdot 3^2\cdot 5\cdot 3607\cdot 3803, the two large primes must sit in different factors (both together already exceed N≈35136\sqrt{N}\approx 35136). Distributing the small part 9090 to balance them gives 3607⋅10=360703607\cdot 10=36070 and 3803⋅9=342273803\cdot 9=34227, the nearest pair, with sum 7029770297.

Adapted from QuantQuestions.io; question and answer rewritten by SelfMadeQuant.com.

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