Maths Olympiad Prep

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Number theory Difficulty 5.4 AIME, harder Prove it Thailand

Prove that there are no integer pairs (x,y)(x, y) satisfying
2560x2+5x+6=y5. 2560x^2 + 5x + 6 = y^5.

Solution

Suppose for the sake of contradiction that an integer pair (x,y)(x, y) satisfies 2560x2+5x+6=y52560x^2 + 5x + 6 = y^5. Thus, 6y5y(mod5)6 \equiv y^5 \equiv y \pmod{5}, and so y1(mod5)y \equiv 1 \pmod{5}. Let kk be an integer such that y=5k+1y = 5k + 1. We now have
2560x2+5x+6=(5k+1)5=1+j=15(5j)(5k)j. 2560x^2 + 5x + 6 = (5k + 1)^5 = 1 + \sum_{j=1}^{5} \binom{5}{j} (5k)^j.
Dividing the above equation by 55 yields
512x2+x+1=54k5+54k4+1052k3+105k2+5k. 512x^2 + x + 1 = 5^4k^5 + 5^4k^4 + 10 \cdot 5^2k^3 + 10 \cdot 5k^2 + 5k.
Taking the above equation modulo 55, we obtain 2x2+x+10(mod5)2x^2 + x + 1 \equiv 0 \pmod{5}. This makes 12x24x+22(x1)2(mod5)1 \equiv 2x^2 - 4x + 2 \equiv 2(x - 1)^2 \pmod{5}, and so 3(x1)2(mod5)3 \equiv (x - 1)^2 \pmod{5}. This is a contradiction since 33 is not a square modulo 55.

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