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A prime and a cube (Posted on 2020-07-13) Difficulty: 2 of 5
What prime numbers p exist such that 16p+1 is a perfect cube?

See The Solution Submitted by Brian Smith    
Rating: 4.0000 (3 votes)

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Solution Explanation to Puzzle Answer | Comment 10 of 11 |
(In reply to Puzzle Answer by K Sengupta)

16p+1=y^3 (say), where y is a positive integer.

Then y^3 must be an odd number, and so:
y must be odd.  .....(i)

Now, p=2 gives y^3=16*2+1=33, which is not a perfect cube. Contradiction. 
Accordingly, p must be an odd prime. .....  (ii)

Now, 16p+1=y^3
=> 16p= y^3-1 = (y-1)(y^2+y+1)
From (i), we know that y-1 is an even number and, from (ii) we are au fait that p is odd. Since NO even number can divide an odd number, we must have: 
y-1 divides 16, and so y-1 correspond to all the divisors of 16 with the inclusion of 1 and itself. 
Accordingly,  y= 2,3,5,9,17
Substituting the above mentioned values for y in the equation:
y^3=16p+1, we observe that:
None of the values 2,3,5,9 yields a valid value for p.
But for y=17, we have:
p=(17^3-1)/16  = 4912/16 = 307
Consequently, 307 is the only possible value for p.

  Posted by K Sengupta on 2022-05-26 09:52:52
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