Maths Olympiad Prep

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Number theory Difficulty 5.8 AIME, harder Prove it South Korea

Find all triplets (x,y,z)(x, y, z) of positive integers satisfying 1+4x+4y=z21 + 4^x + 4^y = z^2.

Solution

Without loss of generality, we may assume that xyx \le y. Suppose that 2x<y+12x < y + 1. Then
(2y)2<1+4x+4y<(1+2y)2, (2^y)^2 < 1 + 4^x + 4^y < (1 + 2^y)^2,
which implies that 1+4x+4y1 + 4^x + 4^y is not a square of an integer. If 2x=y+12x = y + 1, then 1+4x+4y=1+2y+1+4y=(1+2y)21 + 4^x + 4^y = 1 + 2^{y+1} + 4^y = (1 + 2^y)^2. Hence
(x,y,z)=(x,2x1,1+22x1) (x, y, z) = (x, 2x-1, 1 + 2^{2x-1})
is a solution of the equation for any positive integer xx. Suppose that 2x>y+12x > y + 1. Note that
4x+4y=4x(1+4yx)=(z1)(z+1). 4^x + 4^y = 4^x(1 + 4^{y-x}) = (z-1)(z+1).
Since gcd(z1,z+1)=2\gcd(z-1, z+1) = 2, one of z1z-1 or z+1z+1 is divisible by 22x12^{2x-1}. This gives a contradiction because
2(1+4yx)2(1+4x2)<22x12 2(1 + 4^{y-x}) \le 2(1 + 4^{x-2}) < 2^{2x-1} - 2
for any x>1x > 1. Therefore the solutions are:
(x,y,z)=(x,2x1,1+22x1) or (2x1,x,1+22x1) (x, y, z) = (x, 2x-1, 1 + 2^{2x-1}) \text{ or } (2x-1, x, 1 + 2^{2x-1})
for any positive integer xx. \square

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