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Find pairs by Euclid (Posted on 2023-08-27) Difficulty: 3 of 5
Find all positive integer solutions of the equation

n5+n4=7m-1

No Solution Yet Submitted by Danish Ahmed Khan    
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Some Thoughts Found one; not a proof. | Comment 1 of 3
It appears from a computer exploration that (2,2) is the only solution.

Beginnings of a proof:
Consider n^5 + n^4 + 1 = 7^m
The LHS can be factored:
(n^2 + n + 1) * (n^3 - n + 1 ) = 7^m

Whenever n is 2 mod 7, both polynomials on the left are 0 mod 7, meaning they are multiples of 7.  But I have not found a way to prove that n=2 is the only value that makes each polynomial a power of 7.

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import math
for n in range(1,10000):
    lhs = n**5 + n**4
    m_precis = math.log(lhs,7)
    
    m1 = int(m_precis)
    m2 = m1 + 1
    
    rhs1 = 7**m1 - 1
    rhs2 = 7**m2 - 1
    if lhs == rhs1:
        print(n,m1)
    if lhs == rhs2:
        print(n,m2)

  Posted by Larry on 2023-08-27 12:08:37
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