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Number theory Difficulty 6.0 National Olympiad Prove it JBMO

Problem:
Find all triples (a,b,c)(a, b, c) of nonnegative integers that satisfy
a!+5b=7c a! + 5^{b} = 7^{c}

Solution

Solution:
We cannot have c=0c=0 as a!+5b2>1=70a!+5^{b} \geqslant 2 > 1 = 7^{0}.

Assume first that b=0b=0. So we are solving a!+1=7ca!+1=7^{c}. If a7a \geqslant 7, then 7a!7 \mid a! and so 7a!+17 \nmid a!+1. So 77c7 \nmid 7^{c} which is impossible as c0c \neq 0. Checking a<7a<7 by hand, we find the solution (a,b,c)=(3,0,1)(a, b, c) = (3, 0, 1).

We now assume that b>0b>0. In this case, if a5a \geqslant 5, we have 5a!5 \mid a!, and since 55b5 \mid 5^{b}, we have 57c5 \mid 7^{c}, which obviously cannot be true. So we have a4a \leqslant 4. Now we consider the following cases:

Case 1. Suppose a=0a=0 or a=1a=1. In this case, we are solving the equation 5b+1=7c5^{b}+1=7^{c}. However the Left Hand Side of the equation is always even, and the Right Hand Side is always odd, implying that this case has no solutions.

Case 2. Suppose a=2a=2. Now we are solving the equation 5b+2=7c5^{b}+2=7^{c}. If b=1b=1, we have the solution (a,b,c)=(2,1,1)(a, b, c) = (2, 1, 1). Now assume b2b \geqslant 2. We have 5b+22(mod25)5^{b}+2 \equiv 2 \pmod{25} which implies that 7c2(mod25)7^{c} \equiv 2 \pmod{25}. However, by observing that 741(mod25)7^{4} \equiv 1 \pmod{25}, we see that the only residues that 7c7^{c} can have when divided with 25 are 7,24,18,17, 24, 18, 1. So this case has no more solutions.

Case 3. Suppose a=3a=3. Now we are solving the equation 5b+6=7c5^{b}+6=7^{c}. We have 5b+61(mod5)5^{b}+6 \equiv 1 \pmod{5} which implies that 7c1(mod5)7^{c} \equiv 1 \pmod{5}. As the residues of 7c7^{c} modulo 5 are 2,4,3,12, 4, 3, 1, in that order, we obtain 4c4 \mid c.

Viewing the equation modulo 4, we have 7c5b+61+23(mod4)7^{c} \equiv 5^{b}+6 \equiv 1+2 \equiv 3 \pmod{4}. But as 4c4 \mid c, we know that 7c7^{c} is a square, and the only residues that a square can have when divided by 4 are 0, 1. This means that this case has no solutions either.

Case 4. Suppose a=4a=4. Now we are solving the equation 5b+24=7c5^{b}+24=7^{c}. We have 5b7c241241(mod3)5^{b} \equiv 7^{c}-24 \equiv 1-24 \equiv 1 \pmod{3}. Since 52(mod3)5 \equiv 2 \pmod{3}, we obtain 2b2 \mid b. We also have 7c5b+244(mod5)7^{c} \equiv 5^{b}+24 \equiv 4 \pmod{5}, and so we obtain c2(mod4)c \equiv 2 \pmod{4}. Let b=2mb=2m and c=2nc=2n. Observe that
24=7c5b=(7n5m)(7n+5m) 24 = 7^{c} - 5^{b} = (7^{n} - 5^{m})(7^{n} + 5^{m})
Since 7n+5m>07^{n} + 5^{m} > 0, we have 7n5m>07^{n} - 5^{m} > 0. There are only a few ways to express 24=241=122=83=6424 = 24 \cdot 1 = 12 \cdot 2 = 8 \cdot 3 = 6 \cdot 4 as a product of two positive integers. By checking these cases we find one by one, the only solution in this case is (a,b,c)=(4,2,2)(a, b, c) = (4, 2, 2).

Having exhausted all cases, we find that the required set of triples is
(a,b,c){(3,0,1),(2,1,1),(4,2,2)} (a, b, c) \in \{(3, 0, 1), (2, 1, 1), (4, 2, 2)\}

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