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Number theory Difficulty 5.7 AIME, harder Prove it Japan

Determine all positive integers nn for which 8n+n8^n + n is divisible by 2n+n2^n + n.

Solution

To begin with, we transform 8n+n8^n + n into the following expression:
8n+n=(2n)3+n=(2n+n)((2n)2n2n+n2)(n3n). 8^n + n = (2n)^3 + n = (2^n + n)((2^n)^2 - n \cdot 2^n + n^2) - (n^3 - n).
Since (2n)2n2n+n2(2^n)^2 - n \cdot 2^n + n^2 is an integer, from the expression above it follows that the statement 8n+n8^n + n is divisible by 2n+n2^n + n is equivalent to the statement n3nn^3 - n is divisible by 2n+n2^n + n.
If n=1n=1, then n3n=0n^3 - n = 0, so 8n+n8^n + n is divisible by 2n+n2^n + n in this case. If n2n \ge 2, n3n>0n^3 - n > 0, so we must have n3n2n+nn^3 - n \ge 2^n + n; in particular, it is necessary that n3>2nn^3 > 2^n. Let us, therefore, set f(n)=n32nf(n) = \frac{n^3}{2^n}. Then, if n4n \ge 4 we have
f(n+1)f(n)=12(n+1n)3=12(1+1n)312(1+14)3=125128<1. \frac{f(n+1)}{f(n)} = \frac{1}{2} \cdot \left(\frac{n+1}{n}\right)^3 = \frac{1}{2} \cdot \left(1 + \frac{1}{n}\right)^3 \le \frac{1}{2} \cdot \left(1 + \frac{1}{4}\right)^3 = \frac{125}{128} < 1.
Therefore, we get f(4)>f(5)>f(4) > f(5) > \dots. Since f(10)=10001024<1f(10) = \frac{1000}{1024} < 1, we see that if n10n \ge 10, then f(n)<1f(n) < 1, i.e., n3<2nn^3 < 2^n.
Thus, we see that it is enough to check that for which nn satisfying 2n<102 \le n < 10, n3nn^3 - n is divisible by 2n+n2^n + n. For, n=2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9n = 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 we get
(n3n,2n+n)=(6,6),(24,11),(60,20),(120,37),(210,70)(336,135),(504,264),(720,521), (n^3 - n, 2^n + n) = (6, 6), (24, 11), (60, 20), (120, 37), (210, 70) \\ (336, 135), (504, 264), (720, 521),
and we conclude that n3nn^3 - n is divisible by 2n+n2^n + n, when n=2,4,6n = 2, 4, 6. Together with n=1n = 1, we get that the desired solution is n=1,2,4,6n = 1, 2, 4, 6.

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