Problem

Source: Tournament of Towns, Senior A-Level Paper, Spring 2020 , p2

Tags: LCM, number theory, least common multiple



Alice had picked positive integers $a, b, c$ and then tried to find positive integers $x, y, z$ such that $a = lcm (x, y)$, $b = lcm(x, z)$, $c = lcm(y, z)$. It so happened that such $x, y, z$ existed and were unique. Alice told this fact to Bob and also told him the numbers $a$ and $b$. Prove that Bob can find $c$. (Note: lcm = least common multiple.) Boris Frenkin