Determine all positive integers and satisfying the equation
Solution
We immediately see that does not lead to a solution, while yields the solution .
We show that there is no solution with . In that case is divisible by and thus is divisible by which implies that for some positive integer . After division by , the equation reads . Modulo , this yields , a contradiction because is not a quadratic residue modulo .
Want a route through all this instead of an archive? The track
puts 2,000 problems in a working order, from AMC 10 level to the IMO shortlist.