Skip to main content
OlympiadHQ

Browse · MathNet

Print

Mathematica competitions in Croatia

Croatia number theory

Problem

Find all prime numbers and such that is a perfect square.
Solution
If we have , so that is one solution of the problem.

Now, without loss of generality assume that is odd and let , where . Thus is even and Denote the greatest common divisor of the two factors on the right-hand side by . If we have that is a power of and is also a factor of . It is easy to see that , i.e. . Thus , which is impossible.

Therefore , , and hence The above equation is impossible for odd because and . We conclude that and Since we conclude that , what is a contradiction.
Final answer
(p, q) = (2, 2)

Techniques

Techniques: modulo, size analysis, order analysis, inequalitiesGreatest common divisors (gcd)Factorization techniques