Is this a prime?

Lets say this expression is a prime number: 3 n 1 + 7 k 1 { 3 }^{ n-1 }+{ 7 }^{ k-1 } and n,k are natural numbers.

How many pairs of ( n ; k ) \left( n; k \right) satisfy the expression above?

note: This was a task of the first round of the German mathematical olympiade 1995/96 for tenth graders.


The answer is 1.

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1 solution

CodeCrafter 1
Apr 14, 2019

For every natural number n n , 3 n 1 { 3 }^{ n-1 } is an odd number.

For every natural number k k , 7 k 1 { 7 }^{ k-1 } is an odd number.

An odd number plus an odd number is always an even number.

There is only one even prime number: 2 2 . 2 2 as sum of two natural numbers can only be expressed by 1 + 1 1+1 .

So 3 n 1 = 1 { 3 }^{ n-1 }=1 Thus: n = 1 n=1 .

And 7 k 1 = 1 { 7 }^{ k-1 }=1 Thus: k = 1 k=1 .

As you can see, there exists only one pair of ( n ; k ) \left( n; k \right) : ( 1 ; 1 ) \boxed { \left( 1;1 \right) }

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