Problem:
Find all ordered triples of positive integers such that are primes and .
Solution
Solution:
Suppose . Substituting we obtain which is impossible because 1 is not divided by any prime. Hence necessarily and are different; since the equation is symmetric in and we may assume that , that is . Let us now write our equation as:
This means that is a multiple of and therefore is a prime divisor of . Hence
Now, since is a prime number, it must appear either in the factorization of or in that of ; in either case . By the initial hypothesis we had and therefore we get . Between two consecutive numbers one must necessarily be even and hence equal to 2 (the only even prime) and the other is necessarily 3 since 1 is not prime. Now let us check that the equation can be solved for by substituting and :
from which . The only two solutions are therefore and .