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PrintEstonian Mathematical Olympiad
Estonia number theory
Problem
Find all prime numbers such that is the fifth power of an integer.
Solution
Denote . The following table shows the remainders of and upon division by 11:
As one can see from the table, the only remainders upon division by 11 that the fifth power of an arbitrary integer can give are 0, 1 and 10. On the other hand, integers of the form give only remainders 1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 9 upon division by 11, whereby the remainder is 1 only if is divisible by 11. Consequently, can be the fifth power of an integer only if is divisible by 11. As is prime, the only possibility is . And indeed, .
| 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | 1 | 4 | 9 | 5 | 3 | 3 | 5 | 9 | 4 | 1 | |
| 0 | 1 | 8 | 5 | 9 | 4 | 7 | 2 | 6 | 3 | 10 | |
| 0 | 1 | 10 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 1 | 10 | |
| 1 | 4 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 6 | 9 | 4 | 3 | 7 | 6 |
Final answer
11
Techniques
Fermat / Euler / Wilson theoremsPolynomials mod p