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Number theory Difficulty 5.3 AIME, harder Prove it Brazil

Find all primes which can be written both as a sum of two primes and as a difference of two primes.

Solution

The smallest prime is 22, so it cannot be written as the sum of two primes. All other primes pp are odd, so if pp can be written as the sum of two primes and the difference of two primes, then in each case one of the primes must be 22. Thus we have p=q2=r+2p = q - 2 = r + 2 for some primes q,rq, r.
If r1(mod3)r \equiv 1 \pmod{3}, then pp is a multiple of 33, so pp must be 33. But then r=1r = 1, which is not a prime. So there are no solutions with r1(mod3)r \equiv 1 \pmod{3}. If r2(mod3)r \equiv 2 \pmod{3}, then qq is a multiple of 33, so qq must be 33, but then p=1p = 1, which is not a prime. So there are no solutions with r2(mod3)r \equiv 2 \pmod{3}. Hence rr must be a multiple of 33. But rr is prime, so rr must be 33. Hence q=7q = 7 and p=5p = 5.

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