## Product-sum numbers

### Problem 88

Published on Friday, 4th February 2005, 06:00 pm; Solved by 4144

A natural number, N, that can be written as the sum and product of a given set of at least two natural numbers, {a1, a2, ... , ak} is called a product-sum number: N = a1 + a2 + ... + ak = a1 a2 ... ak.

For example, 6 = 1 + 2 + 3 = 1 2 3.

For a given set of size, k, we shall call the smallest N with this property a minimal product-sum number. The minimal product-sum numbers for sets of size, k = 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 are as follows.

k=2: 4 = 2 2 = 2 + 2
k=3: 6 = 1 2 3 = 1 + 2 + 3
k=4: 8 = 1 1 2 4 = 1 + 1 + 2 + 4
k=5: 8 = 1 1 2 2 2 = 1 + 1 + 2 + 2 + 2
k=6: 12 = 1 1 1 1 2 6 = 1 + 1 + 1 + 1 + 2 + 6

Hence for 2k6, the sum of all the minimal product-sum numbers is 4+6+8+12 = 30; note that 8 is only counted once in the sum.

In fact, as the complete set of minimal product-sum numbers for 2k12 is {4, 6, 8, 12, 15, 16}, the sum is 61.

What is the sum of all the minimal product-sum numbers for 2k12000?