Parity of Base and Exponent

Positive integers x x and y y are such that

665 + 2 x = y 2 \large 665 + 2^{x} = y^{2}

What are the parities of the variables?

x x and y y are both even. x x and y y are both odd. x x is even, y y is odd. x x is odd, y y is even.

This section requires Javascript.
You are seeing this because something didn't load right. We suggest you, (a) try refreshing the page, (b) enabling javascript if it is disabled on your browser and, finally, (c) loading the non-javascript version of this page . We're sorry about the hassle.

1 solution

Chris Lewis
Jul 31, 2020

Since x x is a positive integer, 2 x 2^x is even; so the left-hand side is odd; hence y y is odd.

Square numbers end in one of 0 , 1 , 4 , 6 , 9 0,1,4,6,9 ; so 2 x 2^x must end in one of 4 , 6 4,6 . Odd powers of 2 2 end in 2 2 or 8 8 ; so x x is even. (In fact all of this can be solved just by considering the last digits of each side.)

Of course, the answer could be "no such ( x , y ) (x,y) exist"; but we have 665 + 2 6 = 729 = 2 7 2 665+2^6=729=27^2 and also 665 + 2 12 = 4761 = 6 9 2 665+2^{12}=4761=69^2 . Are there any other solutions?

It's been established that y 2 y^{2} is odd (because adding 665 665 , an odd number, to 2 x 2^{x} results to an odd number), and since odd square numbers are results of odd numbers being squared, y y must be odd as well.

To know whether x x is even or odd, we need to know the last digits of the sums of 5 5 and 2 x 2^{x} :

last digit of sum x = 1 , 5 , 9 , . . . 7 x = 2 , 6 , 10 , . . . 9 x = 3 , 7 , 11 , . . . 3 x = 4 , 8 , 12 , . . . 1 \begin{array}{lc} & \small \text{last digit of sum} \\[0.25em] x=1,5,9,... & \implies 7 \\ x=2,6,10,... & \implies 9 \\ x=3,7,11,... & \implies 3 \\ x=4,8,12,... & \implies 1 \end{array}

Now let's see the last digits of y 2 y^{2} with y y being odd:

last digit of square y = 1 , 11 , 21 , . . . 1 y = 3 , 13 , 23 , . . . 9 y = 5 , 15 , 25 , . . . 5 y = 7 , 17 , 27 , . . . 9 y = 9 , 19 , 29 , . . . 1 \begin{array}{lc} & \small \text{last digit of square} \\ y=1,11,21,... & \implies 1 \\ y=3,13,23,... & \implies 9 \\ y=5,15,25,... & \implies 5 \\ y=7,17,27,... & \implies 9 \\ y=9,19,29,... & \implies 1 \end{array}

We see that if x x is even, the last digits are either 9 9 or 1 1 which are the same last digits if y y ends with the digits 1 , 3 , 7 , 1,3,7, and 9 9 . Thus, x x must be even.


I accidentally deleted my solution and now I can't post another. So I'm commenting here.

Kaizen Cyrus - 10 months, 2 weeks ago

@Chris Lewis, those are the only solutions.

Kaizen Cyrus - 10 months, 2 weeks ago

Log in to reply

Can you prove it, though? (Hint: use the fact that x x is even)

Chris Lewis - 10 months, 2 weeks ago

0 pending reports

×

Problem Loading...

Note Loading...

Set Loading...