Determine all triples $(a, b, c)$ of positive integers such that $$a! + b! = 2^{c!}.$$ (Walther Janous)
Problem
Source: 2023 Austrian Mathematical Olympiad, Junior Regional Competition , Problem 4
Tags: number theory, Diophantine equation, diophantine
NO_SQUARES
26.03.2024 18:54
https://artofproblemsolving.com/community/q1h3284180p30254684
Medalist041
08.06.2024 14:53
1.1.1 1.1.0
Safal
08.06.2024 18:14
WLOG , due to symmetry of $a,b$ we can assume $a\geq b$ .
$\textbf{Case 1:}$ $a>b$ then $b!|a!+b!=2^{c!}$ Now this follows that $b<3$ cause $b!$ has a prime divisor greater than $2$ if $b$ is greater than equal to $3$ ,thus $b=1,2$ But $a$ is atleast $1$ and $a,b$ are distinct so , if $b=1$ then the problem is $a!+1=2^{c!}$ now ,If $a>b=1$ thus $a!$ is even thus $a!+1$ is odd which is not possible for any $c$ is nonneagitive integer.
Now if $b=2$, then $a!=2(2^{c!-1}-1)$ Then clearly $a<4$ because $4$ doesnot divide $a!$ thus if $a>b=2$ implying $a=3$ but then $3=2^{c!-1}-1$ implying $c!-1=2$ Thus $c!=3$
This gives no solution as $c!=3$ has no solution.
Thus the problem is may possible if ,$a=b$ but not from this case.
(Keep in Mind that we are not allowing zero,we will study it after we solve for problem in positive integers,the same is on remark later).
$\textbf{Case 2:}$ $a=b$ Thus $a!=2^{c!-1}$ thus $a<3$ hence $a=1$ is a solution which indeed works with $a=b=1$ and $c!-1=0$ implying $c=1$ also ,$a=b=2$ then $c!-1=1$ implying $c=2$.
Thus solutions are, $(a,b,c)=(1,1,1),(2,2,2)$
$\textbf{Remark:}$ Cases Like $a=0$ or $b=0$ or $c=0$ we can do the same thing but here I am taking Natural numbers are $>0$.
For example :If $b=0$ $a!+1=2^{c!}$ , which was already done before in Case 1. Expect for the fact that we had taken $b>0$ in Case 1.
Second thing is if $c=0$ then $a!+b!=2$
In other words ,If take non negative numbers instead ,
Then all solutions $(a,b,c)$ are
$(1,1,1),(1,1,0),(1,0,0),(1,0,1),(0,0,0),(0,0,1),(0,1,1),(0,1,0),(2,2,2)$
RL_parkgong_0106
18.06.2024 05:12
There is nearly more 'stronger' problem known: $a!+b!=n^2$