Prime Numbers

Find the sum of all positive integers n n for which 3 n 4 , 4 n 5 , 5 n 3 3n -4 , 4n-5 , 5n-3 are all prime.


The answer is 2.

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3 solutions

Alan Yan
Sep 2, 2015

Notice that their sum is even. This implies that one of them must be 2. Checking the three cases, we see the only possibility for n n is 2 \boxed{2}

Arjen Vreugdenhil
Sep 18, 2015

If n n is odd, then 5 n 3 5n-3 is even. If n n is even, then 3 n 4 3n-4 is even. It is therefore not possible that all three numbers are odd.

However, all prime numbers are odd, except for 2. Therefore one of the three numbers must be two. For n > 1 n>1 , the first value is the smallest. Thus the only solution has 3 n 4 = 2 n = 2. 3n-4 = 2\,\Longrightarrow\,n=2.

Curtis Clement
Sep 17, 2015

Notice that if n is odd then 5 n 3 \ 5n-3 is never prime. To prove this assertion, let n = 2k+1 (as n is odd) to obtain: 5 ( 2 k + 1 ) 3 = 10 k + 2 = 2 ( 5 k + 1 ) 5 k + 1 = 1 k = 0 \ 5(2k+1) -3 = 10k +2 = 2(5k+1) \rightarrow\ 5k+1 = 1 \Rightarrow\ k = 0 n = 1 s o 3 n 4 = 1 < 0 \Rightarrow\ n = 1 \ so \ 3n-4 = -1 < 0 Hence, 2 is the only option and it is indeed a solution.

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