Problem 277

Linear Combinations of Semiprimes

Problem 279

Linear Combinations of Semiprimes

Problem 278

Given the values of integers , consider the linear combination
, using only integer values .
Note that for a given set of , it may be that not all values of are possible.
For instance, if
and , there are no and such that could be
or .
In fact,
is the largest impossible value of for and .
We therefore call
.
Similarly, it can be shown that
and .
Find , where , and are prime numbers and .