Triplet Twins

How many ordered sets of primes ( p , q , r ) \left(p,q,r\right) are there such that p < q < r p<q<r and r q = q p = 2 r-q = q-p = 2 ?

Inspired by a talk received at Cambridge on Addictive Number Theory


The answer is 1.

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2 solutions

Danny He
Apr 26, 2014

Assume that there exists three primes p , q , r p,q,r such that the requirements are met. Therefore we have p = q 2 , r = q + 2 p= q-2, r = q+2 and the numbers from p p to r r become q 2 , q 1 , q , q + 1 , q + 2 q-2, q-1, q, q+1, q+2

Since q 2 , q , q + 2 q-2, q, q+2 are all prime, either q 2 = 3 ( p , q , r ) = ( 3 , 5 , 7 ) q-2 = 3 \Rightarrow \left(p,q,r\right) = \left(3,5,7\right) , or q 2 > 3 q-2 > 3 and so 3 q 1 3 q + 2 3| q-1\Rightarrow 3|q+2 or 3 q + 1 3 q 2 3| q+1 \Rightarrow 3|q-2 .

In both of the latter cases we have one of the three primes becoming a multiple of 3 3 which contradicts their prime nature, and hence they can't be prime given that p = q 2 > 3 p = q-2 > 3

Thus there is only one solution, 3 , 5 , 7 3,5,7

You went to a talk at Cambridge for mathematics? If I knew abouts them I would go every time. But now I'm at Cambridge im sure I'll be seeing them all the time.

Isaac Buckley - 5 years, 9 months ago

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Oh are you going to Cambridge too? Which college?

Danny He - 5 years, 9 months ago

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Caius College, what about you?

Isaac Buckley - 5 years, 9 months ago

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@Isaac Buckley Fitzwilliam, I look forward to seeing you there then.

Danny He - 5 years, 9 months ago
Finn Hulse
Apr 26, 2014

If you boil this problem down, we're simply asked how many primes are consecutive odd integers. Let's cross-examine both lists:

1 , 3 , 5 , 7 , 9 , 11 , 13 , 15 , 17 , 19 , 21 , 23 1, 3, 5, 7, \boxed{9}, 11, 13, \boxed{15}, 17, 19, \boxed{21}, 23 \dots

This is not to say that all prime numbers are simply non-multiples of 3 3 , odd, integers. On the contrary, I've simply proven that given any three consecutive odd integers beginning with n > 5 n>5 , there will always be a multiple of three present, and thus cannot be prime. We now must only consider sequences of primes starting with n < 5 n<5 . Notice

2 , 3 , 5 , 7 , 11 , 2, 3, 5, 7, 11, \dots

And 3 , 5 , 7 3, 5, 7 matches the conditions. Now that we have proven that no sequence of n n odd integers can be all prime for n 3 n \geq 3 . So we're finished, and the answer is thus 1 \boxed{1} .

@Danny He Thanks for the awesome problem and for being awesome! I'm sure you'll win an award someday. :D

Finn Hulse - 7 years, 1 month ago

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Ah, it hasn't been updated in a while, I wont a trophy!!!! :D

Danny He - 7 years, 1 month ago

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YAY! What for?

Finn Hulse - 7 years, 1 month ago

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@Finn Hulse A regional Maths team competition held by a neighboring school :P

Danny He - 7 years, 1 month ago

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@Danny He Aw nice dude! Kicking butt and taking names. :D

Finn Hulse - 7 years, 1 month ago

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@Finn Hulse Haha thank you, very happy about it :)

Danny He - 7 years, 1 month ago

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@Danny He Did you get first? What was the test like? How many people were there? Was there a buzzer round? Tell me more! :D

Finn Hulse - 7 years, 1 month ago

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@Finn Hulse Yeah we won :D and nothing fancy, there was a codebreaking round, and then a general round with 15 questions that we had 30 minutes for I think. We didn't actually do that well, we got 8 right, but we did well enough to win :D

Danny He - 7 years, 1 month ago

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@Danny He Oh nice bro. Hey, are you following me? :O

Finn Hulse - 7 years, 1 month ago

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@Finn Hulse Yesssss

Danny He - 7 years, 1 month ago

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@Danny He Fist bump. :O

Finn Hulse - 7 years, 1 month ago

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