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Number theory Difficulty 4.7 AIME Prove it Saudi Arabia

Find all ordered triples (a,b,c)(a, b, c) of positive integers which satisfy
5a+3b2c=32 5^{a} + 3^{b} - 2^{c} = 32

Solution

By considering this equation modulo 33, we get
5a+3b2c2a2c2(mod3) 5^{a} + 3^{b} - 2^{c} \equiv 2^{a} - 2^{c} \equiv 2 \pmod{3}
This occurs only when aa is even and cc is odd.

If c=1c = 1, the equation becomes 5a+3b=345^{a} + 3^{b} = 34, which is equivalent to a=2a = 2 and b=1b = 1.

If c1c \neq 1, then c3c \geq 3, since cc is odd. By considering this equation modulo 88, and using the fact that aa is even, we get
1+3b0(mod8) 1 + 3^{b} \equiv 0 \pmod{8}
which can never occur since 3b3^{b} is congruent to either 11 or 33 modulo 88.

Hence, the unique solution to this equation is (a,b,c)=(2,1,1)(a, b, c) = (2, 1, 1).

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Source: MathNet, licensed CC-BY-4.0. Statement and solution reproduced as published; topic and difficulty added by this site.