Maths Olympiad Prep

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Number theory Difficulty 5.1 AIME, harder Prove it Romania

Find all positive integers x,y,zx, y, z so that 2x2y2z=10232^x - 2^y - 2^z = 1023.

Solution

If none of x,y,zx, y, z is nil, then the left term of the equation is even, so it cannot be equal to 10231023. Hence, at least one of x,y,zx, y, z is nil.
From 2x=2y+2z+10232^x = 2^y + 2^z + 1023 follows that x11x \ge 11, therefore y=0y = 0 or z=0z = 0.
The case z=0z = 0 yields 2x2y=10242^x - 2^y = 1024, so 2y(2xy1)=2102^y \cdot (2^{x-y} - 1) = 2^{10}, (1). From 2x2y>02^x - 2^y > 0 follows x>yx > y, so 2xy12^{x-y} - 1 is odd. From (1), 2y=2102^y = 2^{10} and 2xy1=12^{x-y} - 1 = 1, whence y=10y = 10 and x=11x = 11.
A similar argument works for y=0y = 0, so the solutions are x=11,y=10,z=0x = 11, y = 10, z = 0 and x=11,y=0,z=10x = 11, y = 0, z = 10.

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