Maths Olympiad Prep

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Number theory Difficulty 4.4 AIME Prove it United States

Problem:
If nn is a natural number such that 2n+12n+1 and 3n+13n+1 are perfect squares, prove that 5n+35n+3 can't be a prime number.

Solution

Solution:
Suppose that 5n+35n+3 is a prime number. Let xx and yy be natural numbers such that x2=2n+1x^2 = 2n+1 and y2=3n+1y^2 = 3n+1. Then
5n+3=4(2n+1)(3n+1)=4x2y2=(2xy)(2x+y). 5n+3 = 4(2n+1) - (3n+1) = 4x^2 - y^2 = (2x - y)(2x + y).
Since 5n+35n+3 is a prime number and xx and yy are natural numbers, we must have 2xy=12x - y = 1, implying that y=2x1y = 2x - 1.

Since n=y2x2n = y^2 - x^2, we have that
x2=2n+1=2(y2x2)+1=2((2x1)2x2)+1=6x28x+3. x^2 = 2n + 1 = 2(y^2 - x^2) + 1 = 2((2x - 1)^2 - x^2) + 1 = 6x^2 - 8x + 3.
Thus,
5x28x+3=0 5x^2 - 8x + 3 = 0
and the solutions are x=1x = 1 or x=3/5x = 3/5. Since x2=2n+1x^2 = 2n+1 for a natural number nn, neither of these xx would work and we have a contradiction.

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