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Number theory Difficulty 5.6 AIME, harder Find the answer

Find all triples (a,b,c)(a, b, c) of nonnegative integers that satisfy

a!+5b=7c a! + 5^b = 7^c

A number or a short expression. Spacing and $ signs are ignored.

Solution

We cannot have c=0c=0 as a!+5b2>1=70a!+5^{b} \geqslant 2>1=7^{0}.

Assume first that b=0b=0. So we are solving a!+1=7ca!+1=7^{c}. If a7a \geqslant 7, then 7a!7 \mid a! and so 7a!+17 \nmid a!+1. So 77c7 \nmid 7^{c} which is impossible as c0c \neq 0. Checking a<7a<7, we find the only solution is (a,b,c)=(3,0,1)(a, b, c)=(3,0,1).

Now assume b>0b>0. In this case, if a5a \geqslant 5, we have 5a!5 \mid a!, and since 55b5 \mid 5^{b}, we have 57c5 \mid 7^{c}, which obviously cannot be true. So we have a4a \leqslant 4. Now we consider the following cases:

Case 1. Suppose a=0a=0 or a=1a=1. In this case, we are solving the equation 5b+1=7c5^{b}+1=7^{c}. However the Left Hand Side of the equation is always even, and the Right Hand Side is always odd, implying that this case has no solutions.

Case 2. Suppose a=2a=2. Now we are solving the equation 5b+2=7c5^{b}+2=7^{c}. If b=1b=1, we have the solution (a,b,c)=(2,1,1)(a, b, c)=(2,1,1). Now assume b2b \geqslant 2. We have 5b+22mod255^{b}+2 \equiv 2 \bmod 25 which implies that 7c2mod257^{c} \equiv 2 \bmod 25. However, by observing that 741mod257^{4} \equiv 1 \bmod 25, we see that the only residues that 7c7^{c} can have when divided with 25 are 7,24,18,17,24,18,1. So this case has no more solutions.

Case 3. Suppose a=3a=3. Now we are solving the equation 5b+6=7c5^{b}+6=7^{c}. We have 5b+61mod55^{b}+6 \equiv 1 \bmod 5 which implies that 7c1mod57^{c} \equiv 1 \bmod 5. As the residues of 7c7^{c} modulo 5 are 2,4,3,12,4,3,1, in that order, we obtain 4c4 \mid c.

Viewing the equation modulo 4, we have 7c5b+61+23mod47^{c} \equiv 5^{b}+6 \equiv 1+2 \equiv 3 \bmod 4. But as 4c4 \mid c, we know that 7c7^{c} is a square, and the only residues that a square can have when divided by 4 are 0,1. This means that this case has no solutions either.

Case 4. Suppose a=4a=4. Now we are solving the equation 5b+24=7c5^{b}+24=7^{c}. We have 5b7c241241mod35^{b} \equiv 7^{c}-24 \equiv 1-24 \equiv 1 \bmod 3. Since 52mod35 \equiv 2 \bmod 3, we obtain 2b2 \mid b. We also have 7c5b+244mod57^{c} \equiv 5^{b}+24 \equiv 4 \bmod 5, and so we obtain c2mod4c \equiv 2 \bmod 4. Let b=2mb=2 m and c=2nc=2 n. Observe that

24=7c5b=(7n5m)(7n+5m) 24=7^{c}-5^{b}=\left(7^{n}-5^{m}\right)\left(7^{n}+5^{m}\right)

Since 7n+5m>07^{n}+5^{m}>0, we have 7n5m>07^{n}-5^{m}>0. There are only a few ways to express 24=24= 241=122=83=6424 \cdot 1=12 \cdot 2=8 \cdot 3=6 \cdot 4 as a product of two positive integers. By checking these cases we find one by one, the only solution in this case is (a,b,c)=(4,2,2)(a, b, c)=(4,2,2).

Having exhausted all cases, we find that the required set of triples is

(a,b,c){(3,0,1),(1,2,1),(4,2,2)} (a, b, c) \in\{(3,0,1),(1,2,1),(4,2,2)\}

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Source: NuminaMath-1.5, licensed Apache-2.0. Statement and solution reproduced as published; topic and difficulty added by this site.