Maths Olympiad Prep

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Number theory Difficulty 5.7 AIME, harder Prove it Romania

Find all triples (x,y,z)(x, y, z) of natural numbers such that 21x+4y=z221^x + 4^y = z^2.

Solution

Rewrite the equation as (z2y)(z+2y)=21x(z - 2^y)(z + 2^y) = 21^x. Denote by dd the largest common divisor of z2yz - 2^y and z+2yz + 2^y; then dd divides (z+2y)(z2y)(z + 2^y) - (z - 2^y), so d2y+1d \mid 2^{y+1}. Since dd is a divisor of z+2yz + 2^y and z+2yz + 2^y divides 21x21^x, it follows that d(2y+1,21x)d \mid (2^{y+1}, 21^x), so d=1d = 1.
Consequently, either z2y=1z - 2^y = 1 and z+2y=21xz + 2^y = 21^x, or z2y=3xz - 2^y = 3^x and z+2y=7xz + 2^y = 7^x.
The first case leads to 21x1=2y+121^x - 1 = 2^{y+1}, equality which cannot hold, because 521x15 \mid 21^x - 1 and 52y+15 \nmid 2^{y+1}.
The second case implies 7x3x=2y+17^x - 3^x = 2^{y+1}. We easily see that x0x \neq 0, and for x=1x = 1 we get the solution (1,1,5)(1, 1, 5). Assume that x2x \ge 2.
If xx is odd, then
2y1=7x1+7x23+7x332++73x2+3x1, 2^{y-1} = 7^{x-1} + 7^{x-2} \cdot 3 + 7^{x-3} \cdot 3^2 + \dots + 7 \cdot 3^{x-2} + 3^{x-1},
a contradiction, because the left-hand side is even and right-hand side is odd.
If xx is an even number, x=2sx = 2s, s1s \ge 1, then 49s9s=2y+149^s - 9^s = 2^{y+1}, which is impossible modulo 5, since 549s9s5 \mid 49^s - 9^s.

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Source: MathNet, licensed CC-BY-4.0. Statement reproduced verbatim; metadata (topic, difficulty) added by this project.