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smc

algebra senior

Problem

A lattice point in an -coordinate system is any point where both and are integers. The graph of passes through no lattice point with for all such that . What is the maximum possible value of ?
(A)
(B)
(C)
(D)
Solution
It is very easy to see that the in the graph does not impact whether it passes through the lattice. We need to make sure that cannot be in the form of for . Otherwise, the graph passes through the lattice point at . We only need to worry about very close to , , will be the only case we need to worry about and we want the minimum of those, clearly for , the smallest is , so answer is (In other words we are trying to find the smallest such that .)
Final answer
B