Maths Olympiad Prep

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Number theory Difficulty 4.8 AIME Prove it United States

Problem:
Find all pairs (a,b)(a, b) of positive integers such that
1+5a=6b. 1 + 5^{a} = 6^{b}.

Solution

Solution:
The only solution is (1,1)(1, 1).

It is clear that if b=1b = 1 then a=1a = 1, and that (1,1)(1, 1) is a solution. Consequently, assume b>1b > 1. Then 6b6^{b} is divisible by 44. On the other hand, since 5a1a=1(mod4)5^{a} \equiv 1^{a} = 1 \pmod{4} for all aa, the left side is 2(mod4)2 \pmod{4}. Thus there are no solutions for b>1b > 1.

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