Maths Olympiad Prep

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Number theory Difficulty 5.4 AIME, harder Prove it Saudi Arabia

Find all pairs of positive integers (m,n)(m, n) such that
1252n3m=271. 125 \cdot 2^{n} - 3^{m} = 271.

Solution

Considering the equation mod 5\bmod\ 5 we get
3m1(mod5), 3^{m} \equiv -1 \pmod{5},
so m=4k+2m = 4k + 2 for some positive integer kk. Then, considering the equation mod 7\bmod\ 7 we get
2n92k+15(mod7), -2^{n} - 9^{2k+1} \equiv 5 \pmod{7},
which means
2n+22k+12(mod7). 2^{n} + 2^{2k+1} \equiv 2 \pmod{7}.
Since 2s1,2,4(mod7)2^{s} \equiv 1, 2, 4 \pmod{7} so the only possibility is 2n22k+11(mod7)2^{n} \equiv 2^{2k+1} \equiv 1 \pmod{7} so 3n3 \mid n and 32k+13 \mid 2k+1. From the last one we get 3m3 \mid m so we can write n=3xn = 3x and m=3ym = 3y. Therefore, the given equation takes the form 5323x33y=2715^{3} \cdot 2^{3x} - 3^{3y} = 271, or
(52x3y)(2522x+52x3y+32y)=271. \left(5 \cdot 2^{x} - 3^{y}\right)\left(25 \cdot 2^{2x} + 5 \cdot 2^{x} \cdot 3^{y} + 3^{2y}\right) = 271.
It follows that 2522x+52x3y+32y27125 \cdot 2^{2x} + 5 \cdot 2^{x} \cdot 3^{y} + 3^{2y} \leq 271 and so x<2x < 2. We conclude x=1x = 1 and then y=2y = 2. So m=6m = 6 and n=3n = 3.
\square

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