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k a My Retirement & New Leadership at AoPS
rrusczyk   1571
N Mar 26, 2025 by SmartGroot
I write today to announce my retirement as CEO from Art of Problem Solving. When I founded AoPS 22 years ago, I never imagined that we would reach so many students and families, or that we would find so many channels through which we discover, inspire, and train the great problem solvers of the next generation. I am very proud of all we have accomplished and I’m thankful for the many supporters who provided inspiration and encouragement along the way. I'm particularly grateful to all of the wonderful members of the AoPS Community!

I’m delighted to introduce our new leaders - Ben Kornell and Andrew Sutherland. Ben has extensive experience in education and edtech prior to joining AoPS as my successor as CEO, including starting like I did as a classroom teacher. He has a deep understanding of the value of our work because he’s an AoPS parent! Meanwhile, Andrew and I have common roots as founders of education companies; he launched Quizlet at age 15! His journey from founder to MIT to technology and product leader as our Chief Product Officer traces a pathway many of our students will follow in the years to come.

Thank you again for your support for Art of Problem Solving and we look forward to working with millions more wonderful problem solvers in the years to come.

And special thanks to all of the amazing AoPS team members who have helped build AoPS. We’ve come a long way from here:IMAGE
1571 replies
rrusczyk
Mar 24, 2025
SmartGroot
Mar 26, 2025
k a March Highlights and 2025 AoPS Online Class Information
jlacosta   0
Mar 2, 2025
March is the month for State MATHCOUNTS competitions! Kudos to everyone who participated in their local chapter competitions and best of luck to all going to State! Join us on March 11th for a Math Jam devoted to our favorite Chapter competition problems! Are you interested in training for MATHCOUNTS? Be sure to check out our AMC 8/MATHCOUNTS Basics and Advanced courses.

Are you ready to level up with Olympiad training? Registration is open with early bird pricing available for our WOOT programs: MathWOOT (Levels 1 and 2), CodeWOOT, PhysicsWOOT, and ChemWOOT. What is WOOT? WOOT stands for Worldwide Online Olympiad Training and is a 7-month high school math Olympiad preparation and testing program that brings together many of the best students from around the world to learn Olympiad problem solving skills. Classes begin in September!

Do you have plans this summer? There are so many options to fit your schedule and goals whether attending a summer camp or taking online classes, it can be a great break from the routine of the school year. Check out our summer courses at AoPS Online, or if you want a math or language arts class that doesn’t have homework, but is an enriching summer experience, our AoPS Virtual Campus summer camps may be just the ticket! We are expanding our locations for our AoPS Academies across the country with 15 locations so far and new campuses opening in Saratoga CA, Johns Creek GA, and the Upper West Side NY. Check out this page for summer camp information.

Be sure to mark your calendars for the following events:
[list][*]March 5th (Wednesday), 4:30pm PT/7:30pm ET, HCSSiM Math Jam 2025. Amber Verser, Assistant Director of the Hampshire College Summer Studies in Mathematics, will host an information session about HCSSiM, a summer program for high school students.
[*]March 6th (Thursday), 4:00pm PT/7:00pm ET, Free Webinar on Math Competitions from elementary through high school. Join us for an enlightening session that demystifies the world of math competitions and helps you make informed decisions about your contest journey.
[*]March 11th (Tuesday), 4:30pm PT/7:30pm ET, 2025 MATHCOUNTS Chapter Discussion MATH JAM. AoPS instructors will discuss some of their favorite problems from the MATHCOUNTS Chapter Competition. All are welcome!
[*]March 13th (Thursday), 4:00pm PT/7:00pm ET, Free Webinar about Summer Camps at the Virtual Campus. Transform your summer into an unforgettable learning adventure! From elementary through high school, we offer dynamic summer camps featuring topics in mathematics, language arts, and competition preparation - all designed to fit your schedule and ignite your passion for learning.[/list]
Our full course list for upcoming classes is below:
All classes run 7:30pm-8:45pm ET/4:30pm - 5:45pm PT unless otherwise noted.

Introductory: Grades 5-10

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MATHCOUNTS/AMC 8 Basics
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Visit the pages linked for full schedule details for each of these programs!


MathWOOT Level 1
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Sat & Sun, Apr 26 - Apr 27 (4:00 - 7:00 pm ET/1:00 - 4:00pm PT)
Mon, Tue, Wed & Thurs, Jun 23 - Jun 26 (meets every day of the week!)
0 replies
jlacosta
Mar 2, 2025
0 replies
k i Peer-to-Peer Programs Forum
jwelsh   157
N Dec 11, 2023 by cw357
Many of our AoPS Community members share their knowledge with their peers in a variety of ways, ranging from creating mock contests to creating real contests to writing handouts to hosting sessions as part of our partnership with schoolhouse.world.

To facilitate students in these efforts, we have created a new Peer-to-Peer Programs forum. With the creation of this forum, we are starting a new process for those of you who want to advertise your efforts. These advertisements and ensuing discussions have been cluttering up some of the forums that were meant for other purposes, so we’re gathering these topics in one place. This also allows students to find new peer-to-peer learning opportunities without having to poke around all the other forums.

To announce your program, or to invite others to work with you on it, here’s what to do:

1) Post a new topic in the Peer-to-Peer Programs forum. This will be the discussion thread for your program.

2) Post a single brief post in this thread that links the discussion thread of your program in the Peer-to-Peer Programs forum.

Please note that we’ll move or delete any future advertisement posts that are outside the Peer-to-Peer Programs forum, as well as any posts in this topic that are not brief announcements of new opportunities. In particular, this topic should not be used to discuss specific programs; those discussions should occur in topics in the Peer-to-Peer Programs forum.

Your post in this thread should have what you're sharing (class, session, tutoring, handout, math or coding game/other program) and a link to the thread in the Peer-to-Peer Programs forum, which should have more information (like where to find what you're sharing).
157 replies
jwelsh
Mar 15, 2021
cw357
Dec 11, 2023
k i C&P posting recs by mods
v_Enhance   0
Jun 12, 2020
The purpose of this post is to lay out a few suggestions about what kind of posts work well for the C&P forum. Except in a few cases these are mostly meant to be "suggestions based on historical trends" rather than firm hard rules; we may eventually replace this with an actual list of firm rules but that requires admin approval :) That said, if you post something in the "discouraged" category, you should not be totally surprised if it gets locked; they are discouraged exactly because past experience shows they tend to go badly.
-----------------------------
1. Program discussion: Allowed
If you have questions about specific camps or programs (e.g. which classes are good at X camp?), these questions fit well here. Many camps/programs have specific sub-forums too but we understand a lot of them are not active.
-----------------------------
2. Results discussion: Allowed
You can make threads about e.g. how you did on contests (including AMC), though on AMC day when there is a lot of discussion. Moderators and administrators may do a lot of thread-merging / forum-wrangling to keep things in one place.
-----------------------------
3. Reposting solutions or questions to past AMC/AIME/USAMO problems: Allowed
This forum contains a post for nearly every problem from AMC8, AMC10, AMC12, AIME, USAJMO, USAMO (and these links give you an index of all these posts). It is always permitted to post a full solution to any problem in its own thread (linked above), regardless of how old the problem is, and even if this solution is similar to one that has already been posted. We encourage this type of posting because it is helpful for the user to explain their solution in full to an audience, and for future users who want to see multiple approaches to a problem or even just the frequency distribution of common approaches. We do ask for some explanation; if you just post "the answer is (B); ez" then you are not adding anything useful.

You are also encouraged to post questions about a specific problem in the specific thread for that problem, or about previous user's solutions. It's almost always better to use the existing thread than to start a new one, to keep all the discussion in one place easily searchable for future visitors.
-----------------------------
4. Advice posts: Allowed, but read below first
You can use this forum to ask for advice about how to prepare for math competitions in general. But you should be aware that this question has been asked many many times. Before making a post, you are encouraged to look at the following:
[list]
[*] Stop looking for the right training: A generic post about advice that keeps getting stickied :)
[*] There is an enormous list of links on the Wiki of books / problems / etc for all levels.
[/list]
When you do post, we really encourage you to be as specific as possible in your question. Tell us about your background, what you've tried already, etc.

Actually, the absolute best way to get a helpful response is to take a few examples of problems that you tried to solve but couldn't, and explain what you tried on them / why you couldn't solve them. Here is a great example of a specific question.
-----------------------------
5. Publicity: use P2P forum instead
See https://artofproblemsolving.com/community/c5h2489297_peertopeer_programs_forum.
Some exceptions have been allowed in the past, but these require approval from administrators. (I am not totally sure what the criteria is. I am not an administrator.)
-----------------------------
6. Mock contests: use Mock Contests forum instead
Mock contests should be posted in the dedicated forum instead:
https://artofproblemsolving.com/community/c594864_aops_mock_contests
-----------------------------
7. AMC procedural questions: suggest to contact the AMC HQ instead
If you have a question like "how do I submit a change of venue form for the AIME" or "why is my name not on the qualifiers list even though I have a 300 index", you would be better off calling or emailing the AMC program to ask, they are the ones who can help you :)
-----------------------------
8. Discussion of random math problems: suggest to use MSM/HSM/HSO instead
If you are discussing a specific math problem that isn't from the AMC/AIME/USAMO, it's better to post these in Middle School Math, High School Math, High School Olympiads instead.
-----------------------------
9. Politics: suggest to use Round Table instead
There are important conversations to be had about things like gender diversity in math contests, etc., for sure. However, from experience we think that C&P is historically not a good place to have these conversations, as they go off the rails very quickly. We encourage you to use the Round Table instead, where it is much more clear that all posts need to be serious.
-----------------------------
10. MAA complaints: discouraged
We don't want to pretend that the MAA is perfect or that we agree with everything they do. However, we chose to discourage this sort of behavior because in practice most of the comments we see are not useful and some are frankly offensive.
[list] [*] If you just want to blow off steam, do it on your blog instead.
[*] When you have criticism, it should be reasoned, well-thought and constructive. What we mean by this is, for example, when the AOIME was announced, there was great outrage about potential cheating. Well, do you really think that this is something the organizers didn't think about too? Simply posting that "people will cheat and steal my USAMOO qualification, the MAA are idiots!" is not helpful as it is not bringing any new information to the table.
[*] Even if you do have reasoned, well-thought, constructive criticism, we think it is actually better to email it the MAA instead, rather than post it here. Experience shows that even polite, well-meaning suggestions posted in C&P are often derailed by less mature users who insist on complaining about everything.
[/list]
-----------------------------
11. Memes and joke posts: discouraged
It's fine to make jokes or lighthearted posts every so often. But it should be done with discretion. Ideally, jokes should be done within a longer post that has other content. For example, in my response to one user's question about olympiad combinatorics, I used a silly picture of Sogiita Gunha, but it was done within a context of a much longer post where it was meant to actually make a point.

On the other hand, there are many threads which consist largely of posts whose only content is an attached meme with the word "MAA" in it. When done in excess like this, the jokes reflect poorly on the community, so we explicitly discourage them.
-----------------------------
12. Questions that no one can answer: discouraged
Examples of this: "will MIT ask for AOIME scores?", "what will the AIME 2021 cutoffs be (asked in 2020)", etc. Basically, if you ask a question on this forum, it's better if the question is something that a user can plausibly answer :)
-----------------------------
13. Blind speculation: discouraged
Along these lines, if you do see a question that you don't have an answer to, we discourage "blindly guessing" as it leads to spreading of baseless rumors. For example, if you see some user posting "why are there fewer qualifiers than usual this year?", you should not reply "the MAA must have been worried about online cheating so they took fewer people!!". Was sich überhaupt sagen lässt, lässt sich klar sagen; und wovon man nicht reden kann, darüber muss man schweigen.
-----------------------------
14. Discussion of cheating: strongly discouraged
If you have evidence or reasonable suspicion of cheating, please report this to your Competition Manager or to the AMC HQ; these forums cannot help you.
Otherwise, please avoid public discussion of cheating. That is: no discussion of methods of cheating, no speculation about how cheating affects cutoffs, and so on --- it is not helpful to anyone, and it creates a sour atmosphere. A longer explanation is given in Seriously, please stop discussing how to cheat.
-----------------------------
15. Cutoff jokes: never allowed
Whenever the cutoffs for any major contest are released, it is very obvious when they are official. In the past, this has been achieved by the numbers being posted on the official AMC website (here) or through a post from the AMCDirector account.

You must never post fake cutoffs, even as a joke. You should also refrain from posting cutoffs that you've heard of via email, etc., because it is better to wait for the obvious official announcement. A longer explanation is given in A Treatise on Cutoff Trolling.
-----------------------------
16. Meanness: never allowed
Being mean is worse than being immature and unproductive. If another user does something which you think is inappropriate, use the Report button to bring the post to moderator attention, or if you really must reply, do so in a way that is tactful and constructive rather than inflammatory.
-----------------------------

Finally, we remind you all to sit back and enjoy the problems. :D

-----------------------------
(EDIT 2024-09-13: AoPS has asked to me to add the following item.)

Advertising paid program or service: never allowed

Per the AoPS Terms of Service (rule 5h), general advertisements are not allowed.

While we do allow advertisements of official contests (at the MAA and MATHCOUNTS level) and those run by college students with at least one successful year, any and all advertisements of a paid service or program is not allowed and will be deleted.
0 replies
v_Enhance
Jun 12, 2020
0 replies
k i Stop looking for the "right" training
v_Enhance   50
N Oct 16, 2017 by blawho12
Source: Contest advice
EDIT 2019-02-01: https://blog.evanchen.cc/2019/01/31/math-contest-platitudes-v3/ is the updated version of this.

EDIT 2021-06-09: see also https://web.evanchen.cc/faq-contest.html.

Original 2013 post
50 replies
v_Enhance
Feb 15, 2013
blawho12
Oct 16, 2017
VERY HARD MATH PROBLEM!
slimshadyyy.3.60   32
N a minute ago by Quantum-Phantom
Let a ≥b ≥c ≥0 be real numbers such that a^2 +b^2 +c^2 +abc = 4. Prove that
a+b+c+(√a−√c)^2 ≥3.
32 replies
1 viewing
slimshadyyy.3.60
Saturday at 10:49 PM
Quantum-Phantom
a minute ago
USAMO 1995
paul_mathematics   39
N 5 minutes ago by Tony_stark0094
Given a nonisosceles, nonright triangle ABC, let O denote the center of its circumscribed circle, and let $A_1$, $B_1$, and $C_1$ be the midpoints of sides BC, CA, and AB, respectively. Point $A_2$ is located on the ray $OA_1$ so that $OAA_1$ is similar to $OA_2A$. Points $B_2$ and $C_2$ on rays $OB_1$ and $OC_1$, respectively, are defined similarly. Prove that lines $AA_2$, $BB_2$, and $CC_2$ are concurrent, i.e. these three lines intersect at a point.
39 replies
paul_mathematics
Dec 31, 2004
Tony_stark0094
5 minutes ago
Polynomials and their shift with all real roots and in common
Assassino9931   3
N 12 minutes ago by Assassino9931
Source: Bulgaria Spring Mathematical Competition 2025 11.4
We call two non-constant polynomials friendly if each of them has only real roots, and every root of one polynomial is also a root of the other. For two friendly polynomials \( P(x), Q(x) \) and a constant \( C \in \mathbb{R}, C \neq 0 \), it is given that \( P(x) + C \) and \( Q(x) + C \) are also friendly polynomials. Prove that \( P(x) \equiv Q(x) \).
3 replies
Assassino9931
Yesterday at 1:12 PM
Assassino9931
12 minutes ago
The reflection of AD intersect (ABC) lies on (AEF)
alifenix-   60
N 24 minutes ago by blueprimes
Source: USA TST for EGMO 2020, Problem 4
Let $ABC$ be a triangle. Distinct points $D$, $E$, $F$ lie on sides $BC$, $AC$, and $AB$, respectively, such that quadrilaterals $ABDE$ and $ACDF$ are cyclic. Line $AD$ meets the circumcircle of $\triangle ABC$ again at $P$. Let $Q$ denote the reflection of $P$ across $BC$. Show that $Q$ lies on the circumcircle of $\triangle AEF$.

Proposed by Ankan Bhattacharya
60 replies
alifenix-
Jan 27, 2020
blueprimes
24 minutes ago
What to do...
jb2015007   23
N 44 minutes ago by Andyluo
im in 7th grade and took the AMC 10 A/B with absouletely nauseating score, which i will not reveal. I wasnt even close to AIME frankly. My goals are the following:
7th grade: AMC 8 - DHR
8th grade:AIME qual, AMC 8 Perfect
9th grade: AMC 10 DHR maybe?, AIME 7+
10th grade: USAJMO, AIME 12+, AMC 10 DHR
11th grade: USAMO, AIME 12+, AMC 12 DHR
12th grade: USAMO, AIME great score, AMC 12 perfect or close?
These are the goals that i want to achieve. I will do literally anything to achieve them. Can someone please give me a good tip so i can follow it for the next 5 years of my life to become a 3 time USAMO qual and a 5 time AIME qual, and have an perfect AMC 8 under my belt?
23 replies
jb2015007
Dec 14, 2024
Andyluo
44 minutes ago
k Congrats Team USA!
MathyMathMan   146
N an hour ago by bhavanal
Congratulations to the USA team for placing 1st at the 65th IMO that took place in Bath, United Kingdom.

The team members were:

Jordan Lefkowitz
Krishna Pothapragada
Jessica Wan
Alexander Wang
Qiao Zhang
Linus Tang
146 replies
1 viewing
MathyMathMan
Jul 21, 2024
bhavanal
an hour ago
AMC 10/AIME Study Forum
PatTheKing806   95
N an hour ago by PatTheKing806
[center]

Me (PatTheKing806) and EaZ_Shadow have created a AMC 10/AIME Study Forum! Hopefully, this forum wont die quickly. To signup, do /join or \join.

Click here to join! (or do some pushups) :P

People should join this forum if they are wanting to do well on the AMC 10 next year, trying get into AIME, or loves math!
95 replies
PatTheKing806
Mar 27, 2025
PatTheKing806
an hour ago
Practice AMC 12A
freddyfazbear   69
N 2 hours ago by fake123
Practice AMC 12A

1. Find the sum of the infinite geometric series 1 + 7/18 + 49/324 + …
A - 36/11, B - 9/22, C - 18/11, D - 18/7, E - 9/14

2. What is the first digit after the decimal point in the square root of 420?
A - 1, B - 2, C - 3, D - 4, E - 5

3. Two circles with radiuses 47 and 96 intersect at two points A and B. Let P be the point 82% of the way from A to B. A line is drawn through P that intersects both circles twice. Let the four intersection points, from left to right be W, X, Y, and Z. Find (PW/PX)*(PY/PZ).
A - 50/5863, B - 47/96, C - 1, D - 96/47, E - 5863/50

4. What is the largest positive integer that cannot be expressed in the form 6a + 9b + 4 + 20d, where a, b, and d are positive integers?
A - 29, B - 38, C - 43, D - 76, E - 82

5. What is the absolute difference of the probabilities of getting at least 6/10 on a 10-question true or false test and at least 3/5 on a 5-question true or false test?
A - 63/1024, B - 63/512, C - 63/256, D - 63/128, E - 0

6. How many arrangements of the letters in the word “sensor” are there such that the two vowels have an even number of letters (remember 0 is even) between them (including the original “sensor”)?
A - 72, B - 108, C - 144, D - 216, E - 432

7. Find the value of 0.9 * 0.97 + 0.5 * 0.1 * (0.5 * 0.97 + 0.5 * 0.2) rounded to the nearest tenth of a percent.
A - 89.9%, B - 90.0%, C - 90.1%, D - 90.2%, E - 90.3%

8. Two painters are painting a room. Painter 1 takes 52:36 to paint the room, and painter 2 takes 26:18 to paint the room. With these two painters working together, how long should the job take?
A - 9:16, B - 10:52, C - 17:32, D - 35:02, E - 39:44

9. Statistics show that people who work out n days a week have a (1/10)(n+2) chance of getting a 6-pack, and the number of people who exercise n days a week is directly proportional to 8 - n (Note that n can only be an integer from 0 to 7, inclusive). A random person is selected. Find the probability that they have a 6-pack.
A - 13/30, B - 17/30, C - 19/30, D - 23/30, E - 29/30

10. A factory must produce 3,000 items today. The manager of the factory initially calls over 25 employees, each producing 5 items per hour starting at 9 AM. However, he needs all of the items to be produced by 9 PM, and realizes that he must speed up the process. At 12 PM, the manager then encourages his employees to work faster by increasing their pay, in which they then all speed up to 6 items per hour. At 1 PM, the manager calls in 15 more employees which make 5 items per hour each. Unfortunately, at 3 PM, the AC stops working and the hot sun starts taking its toll, which slows every employee down by 2 items per hour. At 4 PM, the technician fixes the AC, and all employees return to producing 5 items per hour. At 5 PM, the manager calls in 30 more employees, which again make 5 items per hour. At 6 PM, he calls in 30 more employees. At 7 PM, he rewards all the pickers again, speeding them up to 6 items per hour. But at 8 PM, n employees suddenly crash out and stop working due to fatigue, and the rest all slow back down to 5 items per hour because they are tired. The manager does not have any more employees, so if too many of them drop out, he is screwed and will have to go overtime. Find the maximum value of n such that all of the items can still be produced on time, done no later than 9 PM.
A - 51, B - 52, C - 53, D - 54, E - 55

11. Two congruent right rectangular prisms stand near each other. Both have the same orientation and altitude. A plane that cuts both prisms into two pieces passes through the vertical axes of symmetry of both prisms and does not cross the bottom or top faces of either prism. Let the point that the plane crosses the axis of symmetry of the first prism be A, and the point that the plane crosses the axis of symmetry of the second prism be B. A is 81% of the way from the bottom face to the top face of the first prism, and B is 69% of the way from the bottom face to the top face of the second prism. What percent of the total volume of both prisms combined is above the plane?
A - 19%, B - 25%, C - 50%, D - 75%, E - 81%

12. On an analog clock, the minute hand makes one full revolution every hour, and the hour hand makes one full revolution every 12 hours. Both hands move at a constant rate. During which of the following time periods does the minute hand pass the hour hand?
A - 7:35 - 7:36, B - 7:36 - 7:37, C - 7:37 - 7:38, D - 7:38 - 7:39, E - 7:39 - 7:40

13. How many axes of symmetry does the graph of (x^2)(y^2) = 69 have?
A - 2, B - 3, C - 4, D - 5, E - 6

14. Let f(n) be the sum of the positive integer divisors of n. Find the sum of the digits of the smallest odd positive integer n such that f(n) is greater than 2n.
A - 15, B - 18, C - 21, D - 24, E - 27

15. A basketball has a diameter of 9 inches, and the hoop has a diameter of 18 inches. Peter decides to pick up the basketball and make a throw. Given that Peter has a 1/4 chance of accidentally hitting the backboard and missing the shot, but if he doesn’t, he is guaranteed that the frontmost point of the basketball will be within 18 inches of the center of the hoop at the moment when a great circle of the basketball crosses the plane containing the rim. No part of the ball will extend behind the backboard at any point during the throw, and the rim is attached directly to the backboard. What is the probability that Peter makes the shot?
A - 3/128, B - 3/64, C - 3/32, D - 3/16, E - 3/8

16. Amy purchases 6 fruits from a store. At the store, they have 5 of each of 5 different fruits. How many different combinations of fruits could Amy buy?
A - 210, B - 205, C - 195, D - 185, E - 180

17. Find the area of a cyclic quadrilateral with side lengths 6, 9, 4, and 2, rounded to the nearest integer.
A - 16, B - 19, C - 22, D - 25, E - 28

18. Find the slope of the line tangent to the graph of y = x^2 + x + 1 at the point (2, 7).
A - 2, B - 3, C - 4, D - 5, E - 6

19. Let f(n) = 4096n/(2^n). Find f(1) + f(2) + … + f(12).
A - 8142, B - 8155, C - 8162, D - 8169, E - 8178

20. Find the sum of all positive integers n greater than 1 and less than 16 such that (n-1)! + 1 is divisible by n.
A - 41, B - 44, C - 47, D - 50, E - 53

21. In a list of integers where every integer in the list ranges from 1 to 200, inclusive, and the chance of randomly drawing an integer n from the list is proportional to n if n <= 100 and to 201 - n if n >= 101, what is the sum of the numerator and denominator of the probability that a random integer drawn from the list is greater than 30, when expressed as a common fraction in lowest terms?
A - 1927, B - 2020, C - 2025, D - 3947, E - 3952

22. In a small town, there were initially 9 people who did not have a certain bacteria and 3 people who did. Denote this group to be the first generation. Then those 12 people would randomly get into 6 pairs and reproduce, making the second generation, consisting of 6 people. Then the process repeats for the second generation, where they get into 3 pairs. Of the 3 people in the third generation, what is the probability that exactly one of them does not have the bacteria? Assume that if at least one parent has the bacteria, then the child is guaranteed to get it.
A - 8/27, B - 1/3, C - 52/135, D - 11/27, E - 58/135

23. Amy, Steven, and Melissa each start at the point (0, 0). Assume the coordinate axes are in miles. At t = 0, Amy starts walking along the x-axis in the positive x direction at 0.6 miles per hour, Steven starts walking along the y-axis in the positive y direction at 0.8 miles per hour, and Melissa starts walking along the x-axis in the negative x direction at 0.4 miles per hour. However, a club that does not like them patrols the circumference of the circle x^2 + y^2 = 1. Three officers of the club, equally spaced apart on the circumference of the circle, walk counterclockwise along its circumference and make one revolution every hour. At t = 0, one of the officers of the club is at (1, 0). Any of Amy, Steven, and Melissa will be caught by the club if they walk within 50 meters of one of their 3 officers. How many of the three will be caught by the club?
A - 0, B - 1, C - 2, D - 3, E - Not enough info to determine

24.
A list of 9 positive integers consists of 100, 112, 122, 142, 152, and 160, as well as a, b, and c, with a <= b <= c. The range of the list is 70, both the mean and median are multiples of 10, and the list has a unique mode. How many ordered triples (a, b, c) are possible?
A - 1, B - 2, C - 3, D - 4, E - 5

25. What is the integer closest to the value of tan(83)? (The 83 is in degrees)
A - 2, B - 3, C - 4, D - 6, E - 8
69 replies
freddyfazbear
Mar 28, 2025
fake123
2 hours ago
[TEST RELEASED] Mock Geometry Test for College Competitions
Bluesoul   23
N 5 hours ago by Bluesoul
Hi AOPSers,

I have finished writing a mock geometry test for fun and practice for the real college competitions like HMMT/PUMaC/CMIMC... There would be 10 questions and you should finish the test in 60 minutes, the test would be close to the actual test (hopefully). You could sign up under this thread, PM me your answers!. The submission would close on March 31st at 11:59PM PST.

I would create a private discussion forum so everyone could discuss after finishing the test. This is the first mock I've written, please sign up and enjoy geometry!!

~Bluesoul

Discussion forum: Discussion forum

Leaderboard
23 replies
Bluesoul
Feb 24, 2025
Bluesoul
5 hours ago
2025 INTEGIRLS NYC/NJ Math Competition
sargamsujit   3
N Yesterday at 8:28 PM by Inaaya
NYC/NJ INTEGIRLS will be hosting our second annual math competition on May 3rd, 2025 from 9:30 AM to 4:30 PM EST at Rutgers University. Last year, we proudly organized the largest math competition for girls globally, welcoming over 500 participants from across the tristate area. Join other female-identifying and non-binary "STEMinists" in solving problems, socializing, playing games, and more! If you are interested in competing, please register at https://forms.gle/jqwEiq5PgqefetLj7

Find our website at https://nyc.nj.integirls.org/

[center]Important Information[/center]

Eligibility: This competition is open to all female-identifying and non-binary students in 8th grade or under. The competition is also completely free, including registration and lunch.

System: We will have two divisions: a middle school division and an elementary school division. There will be an individual round and team round. There will be prizes for the top competitors in each division!

Problem Difficulty: Our amazing team of problem writers is working hard to ensure that there will be problems for problem-solvers of all levels! The elementary school problems will range from introductory to AMC 8 level, while the middle school problems will be for more advanced problem-solvers. Team round problems will cover various difficulty levels.

Platform: This contest will be held in person at Rutgers University. Competitors will all receive free merchandise, raffle tickets, and the chance to win exclusive gift prizes!


[center]Prizes

Over $2,000 in awards, including plaques, medals, plushies, gift cards, toys, books, swag, and more for top competitors and teams

[center]Help Us Out[/center]


[center]Please help us in sharing our competition and spreading the word! Our amazing team of officers has worked very hard to provide this educational opportunity to as many students as possible and we would appreciate it if you could help us spread the word!
Format credits go to Indy INTEGIRLS!
3 replies
sargamsujit
Jan 28, 2025
Inaaya
Yesterday at 8:28 PM
PROM^2 for Girls 2025
mathisfun17   21
N Yesterday at 8:22 PM by Inaaya
Hi everyone!

The Princeton International School of Math and Science (PRISMS) Math Team is delighted that $PROM^2$ for Girls, PRISMS Online Math Meet for Girls, is happening this spring! https://www.prismsus.org/events/prom/home/index

We warmly invite all middle school girls to join us! This is a fantastic opportunity for young girls to connect with others interested in math as well as prepare for future math contests.

This contest will take place online from 12:00 pm to 3:00 pm EST on Saturday, April 26th, 2025.

The competition will include a team and individual round as well as activities like origami. You can see a detailed schedule here. https://prismsus.org/events/prom/experience/schedule.

Registration is FREE, there are cash prizes for participants who place in the top 10 and cool gifts for all participants.

1st place individual: $500 cash
2nd place individual: $300 cash
3rd place individual: $100 cash
4th-10th place individual: $50 cash each

Some FAQs:
Q: How difficult are the questions?
A: The problem difficulty is around AMC 8 or Mathcounts level.

Q: Are there any example problems?
A: You can find some archived here: https://www.prismsus.org/events/prom/achieve/achieve

Registration is open now. https://www.prismsus.org/events/prom/register/register. Email us at prom2@prismsus.org with any questions.

The PRISMS Peregrines Math Team welcomes you!
21 replies
mathisfun17
Feb 22, 2025
Inaaya
Yesterday at 8:22 PM
Fixed point as P varies
tenniskidperson3   86
N Yesterday at 7:38 PM by ErTeeEs06
Source: 2016 USAJMO 1
The isosceles triangle $\triangle ABC$, with $AB=AC$, is inscribed in the circle $\omega$. Let $P$ be a variable point on the arc $\stackrel{\frown}{BC}$ that does not contain $A$, and let $I_B$ and $I_C$ denote the incenters of triangles $\triangle ABP$ and $\triangle ACP$, respectively.

Prove that as $P$ varies, the circumcircle of triangle $\triangle PI_BI_C$ passes through a fixed point.
86 replies
tenniskidperson3
Apr 19, 2016
ErTeeEs06
Yesterday at 7:38 PM
Colored Pencils for Math Competitions
Owinner   14
N Yesterday at 7:28 PM by BS2012
I've heard using colored pencils is really useful for geometry problems. Is this only for very hard problems, or can it be used in MATHCOUNTS/AMC 8/10? An example problem would be much appreciated.
14 replies
Owinner
Saturday at 5:56 PM
BS2012
Yesterday at 7:28 PM
Correlation between USAMO and CMO qualification
rantaccountcs   3
N Yesterday at 6:14 PM by BS2012
What is the correlation between cmo qualification and usamo qualification? What proportion of Canadian usamo qualifiers are cmo qualifiers and what proportion of cmo qualifiers are usamo qualifiers?
3 replies
rantaccountcs
Nov 2, 2023
BS2012
Yesterday at 6:14 PM
Exponential + factorial diophantine
62861   34
N Mar 26, 2025 by ali123456
Source: USA TSTST 2017, Problem 4, proposed by Mark Sellke
Find all nonnegative integer solutions to $2^a + 3^b + 5^c = n!$.

Proposed by Mark Sellke
34 replies
62861
Jun 29, 2017
ali123456
Mar 26, 2025
Exponential + factorial diophantine
G H J
Source: USA TSTST 2017, Problem 4, proposed by Mark Sellke
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62861
3564 posts
#1 • 16 Y
Y by rightways, Davi-8191, Mathuzb, mathdragon2000, integrated_JRC, myh2910, OlympusHero, fidgetboss_4000, itslumi, son7, megarnie, centslordm, HWenslawski, Adventure10, Mango247, ItsBesi
Find all nonnegative integer solutions to $2^a + 3^b + 5^c = n!$.

Proposed by Mark Sellke
This post has been edited 1 time. Last edited by 62861, Jun 29, 2017, 8:51 PM
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v_Enhance
6870 posts
#2 • 23 Y
Y by laegolas, psa, MustafaKemal, Mathuzb, mathdragon2000, Mosquitall, integrated_JRC, myh2910, HolyMath, Kanep, Idio-logy, son7, v4913, sqrtX, tigerzhang, centslordm, guptaamitu1, HWenslawski, HamstPan38825, Adventure10, lian_the_noob12, Mango247, MS_asdfgzxcvb
For $n \le 4$, one can check the only solutions are: \begin{align*} 	2^2 + 3^0 + 5^0 &= 3! \\ 	2^1 + 3^1 + 5^0 &= 3! \\ 	2^4 + 3^1 + 5^1 &= 4!. \end{align*}Now we prove there are no solutions for $n \ge 5$.

A tricky way to do this is to take modulo $120$, since \begin{align*} 	2^a \pmod{120} &\in \{ 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64 \} \\ 	3^b \pmod{120} &\in \{ 1, 3, 9, 27, 81 \} \\ 	5^c \pmod{120} &\in \{ 1, 5, 25 \} \end{align*}and by inspection one notes that no three elements have vanishing sum modulo $120$.

I expect most solutions to instead use casework. Here is one possible approach with cases (with $n \ge 5$). First, we analyze the cases where $a < 3$:
  • $a=0$: No solutions for parity reasons.
  • $a=1$: since $3^b + 5^c \equiv 6 \pmod 8$, we find $b$ even and $c$ odd (hence $c \neq 0$). Now looking modulo $5$ gives that $3^b + 5^c \equiv 3 \pmod 5$,
  • $a=2$: From $3^b + 5^c \equiv 4 \pmod 8$, we find $b$ is odd and $c$ is even. Now looking modulo $5$ gives a contradiction, even if $c = 0$, since $3^b \in \{2,3 \pmod 5\}$ but $3^b + 5^c \equiv 1 \pmod 5$.
Henceforth assume $a \ge 3$. Next, by taking modulo $8$ we have $3^b+5^c \equiv 0 \pmod 8$, which forces both $b$ and $c$ to be odd (in particular, $b,c > 0$). We now have \begin{align*} 	2^a + 5^c &\equiv 0 \pmod 3 \\ 	2^a + 3^b &\equiv 0 \pmod 5. \end{align*}The first equation implies $a$ is even, but the second equation requires $a$ to be odd, contradiction. Hence no solutions with $n \ge 5$.
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jeff10
1117 posts
#3 • 3 Y
Y by centslordm, Adventure10, Mango247
Solution
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sunfishho
447 posts
#5 • 1 Y
Y by Adventure10
v_Enhance wrote:
A tricky way to do this is to take modulo $120$, since \begin{align*} 	2^a \pmod{120} &\in \{ 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64 \} \\ 	3^b \pmod{120} &\in \{ 1, 3, 9, 27, 81 \} \\ 	5^c \pmod{120} &\in \{ 1, 5, 25 \} \end{align*}and by inspection one notes that no three elements have vanishing sum modulo $120$.
Just wondering, what is the motivation for picking 120?
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mathdragon2000
2458 posts
#6 • 3 Y
Y by sunfishho, Adventure10, Mango247
I'm not the one you're asking, but...
Motivation?
This post has been edited 1 time. Last edited by mathdragon2000, Nov 27, 2017, 2:11 AM
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inxang
157 posts
#7 • 2 Y
Y by Adventure10, Mango247
CantonMathGuy wrote:
Find all nonnegative integer solutions to $2^a + 3^b + 5^c = n!$.

Proposed by Mark Sellke

Help me!

Solve integers equation:

$2^x+5^y-7^z=0$
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ubermensch
820 posts
#9 • 1 Y
Y by Adventure10
Nice diophantine, but I thought it was on the easier side for a TST... I found a rather roundabout way to do it(at least compared to the $mod$ $120$ solution here)-
Sketch
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AlastorMoody
2125 posts
#10 • 2 Y
Y by SHREYAS333, Adventure10
Solution
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Math-wiz
6107 posts
#12
Y by
CantonMathGuy wrote:
Find all nonnegative integer solutions to $2^a + 3^b + 5^c = n!$.

Proposed by Mark Sellke

solution
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kvs
620 posts
#13 • 1 Y
Y by Mango247
I claim the only solutions are $\boxed{(a,b,c,n) = (1,1,0,3), (4,1,1,4), (2,0,0,3)}$. One can easily check that all of these work.

We now prove there are no other solutions. First, we show that, if $n \geq 5, a \geq 3, b \geq 1$, there are no solutions. First, take the equation mod $4$ to get $3^b+5^c \equiv 0 \pmod{4}$, or $(-1)^b \equiv -1 \pmod{4}$, implying $b$ is odd. Taking the equation mod $8$ gives $3^b+(-3)^c \equiv 3 + (-3)^c \equiv 0 \pmod{8}$, implying $c$ is odd as well. Taking the equation mod $3$ gives $2^a+2^c \equiv 0 \pmod{3}$, implying $a$ is even since $c$ is odd. Finally, taking the equation mod $15$ gives $2^a \equiv \{1,4\} \pmod{15}, 3^b \equiv \{3,12\} \pmod{15}, 5^c \equiv 5 \pmod{5}$ (from the parities above). One can easily check that no combination of these residues sums to $0$ mod $15$.

If $n < 5$, a finite case check gives the solutions listed above. From now, we assume $n \geq 5$. First, assume $b < 1$, or $b=0$. Then, $2^a+5^c+1 = n!$. If $c = 0$, then $2^a+2=n!$, which is impossible since $2^a+2$ is never divisible by $8$. Thus, $c \geq 1$. Taking the equation mod $5$ gives $2^a +1  \equiv 0 \pmod{5}$, so $a \equiv 2 \pmod{4}$. However, mod $4$ gives $2 \equiv 0 \pmod{4}$, contradiction.

If $n \geq 5$ and $a < 3$, then we do casework on the value of $a$. If $a = 0$, we get $3^b+5^c+1$ is even, which is impossible. If $a=1$, we get $3^b+5^c+2 =n!$. Taking mod $4$ gives $(-1)^b+3 \equiv 0 \pmod{4}$, so $b$ is even. Taking mod $8$ gives $5^c + 3 \equiv 0 \pmod{8}$, so $c$ is odd. However, taking mod $5$ gives $3^b+2 \equiv 0 \pmod{5}$, so $b$ must be odd, contradiction. If $a=2$, then $3^b+5^c+4 = n!$. As before, mod $4$ gives $b$ odd, so mod $8$ gives $5^c+7 \equiv 0 \pmod{8}$, which is impossible. Thus, we have exhausted all cases and the above solutions are the only ones.

Remarks
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GeronimoStilton
1521 posts
#14 • 1 Y
Y by naman12
This was an amusing exercise in bashing.

Consider some solution $(a,b,c,n)$. Remark that $2^a+3^b+5^c \ge 1+1+1 = 3$, so $n\ge 3$. Additionally, remark $2\mid n!-3^b-5^c$, so $a\ge 1$. Let $a=k+1$.

Claim: We have $n\le 4$.

Solution: Suppose otherwise.

Consider the case $a=1$. Rearranging yields $3^b+5^c=n!-2$. Take modulo $4$ to get $3^b+1\equiv 2\pmod{4}$, hence $b$ is even. In the case $c\ge 1$, we could take modulo $5$ to get $3^b\equiv 3\pmod{5}$, which can't occur if $b$ is even. Hence, we have $c=0$ and $3^b=n!-3$. This has no solution if $n=5$, so we may assume $n\ge 6$. Then, $3^b\equiv n!-3\equiv 6\pmod{9}$, which is absurd.

Now, we may assume $a\ge 2$. Take modulo $4$ to get $3^b+1\equiv 0\pmod{4}$, so $b$ is odd. Take modulo $5$ to get $2^a+3^b\equiv 0\pmod{5}$. Since $b$ is odd, $3^b\equiv 2,3\pmod{5}$, implying that $2^a\equiv 2,3\pmod{5}$ and $a$ is odd as well. In particular, this implies $a\ge 3$. Take modulo $8$ to get $3+5^c\equiv 0\pmod{8}$, which implies $c$ is odd. Take modulo $3$ to get $2+5\equiv 0\pmod{3}$, which is false. Hence, there are no solutions for $n\ge 5$, and we are done. $\fbox{}$

Now, we have the bound $3\le n\le 4$.

Case 1: We have $n=3$. Then, we have $6=2^a+3^b+5^c \ge 1+1+5^c=2+5^c$. This implies $c=0$, so $5=2^a+3^b \ge 2^a+1$. This implies $1\le a\le 2$. Taking $a=1$ gives $(a,b,c,n) = (1,1,0,3)$ and taking $a=2$ gives $(2,0,0,3)$. These constitute all possibilities in this scenario.

Case 2: We have $n=4$. Then, we have $24=2^a+3^b+5^c \ge 1+1+5^c=2+5^c$. This implies $c\le 1$, so $c\in \{0,1\}$.

Subcase 1: We have $c=0$. Rearrange to get $23=2^a+3^b \ge 1+3^b$. This implies $b\le 2$. Taking $b=2$ gives no solution, taking $b=1$ gives no solution, and taking $b=0$ gives no solution, hence there are no solutions in this case.

Subcase 2: We have $c=1$. Rearrange to get $19=2^a+3^b\ge 1+3^b$. This implies $b\le 2$. Taking $b=2$ gives no solution, taking $b=1$ gives $a=4$, and taking $b=0$ gives no solution, hence we have the solution $(a,b,c,n) = (4,1,1,4)$.

We have considered all cases, so the solutions are $(a,b,c,n) = (1,1,0,3), (2,0,0,3),(4,1,1,4)$.
This post has been edited 1 time. Last edited by GeronimoStilton, Jul 19, 2020, 4:51 PM
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dchenmathcounts
2443 posts
#15
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This is just low brain. The solutions are $(2,0,0,3),(1,1,0,3),(4,1,1,4).$ We show $n\geq 5$ has no solutions.

By mod $4,$ $3^b+5^c\equiv 3^b+1\equiv 0\pmod{4},$ so $b\equiv 1\pmod{2}.$ Thus by mod $8,$ $c\equiv 1\pmod{2}$ as well. By mod $5,$ $2^a+3^b\equiv 0\pmod{5},$ implying $a\equiv b\pmod{4},$ or $a\equiv b\equiv 1\pmod{2}.$ But by mod $3,$ $2^a+5^c\equiv 2^a+2^c\equiv 0\pmod{3},$ implying that $c\equiv 0\pmod{2},$ which is a contradiction.
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fidgetboss_4000
3472 posts
#16
Y by
Wow, yet another “oly NT problem” trivialized just by taking mods of small numbers
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IAmTheHazard
5000 posts
#17 • 2 Y
Y by son7, centslordm
For $n \leq 4$, we can manually check everything, finding that the only solutions are $(a,b,c,n)=(2,0,0,3),(1,1,0,3),(4,1,1,4)$.

We now eliminate any $n \geq 5$.
First take $\pmod{3}$. We see that $(-1)^a+(-1)^c \equiv 0 \pmod{3}$, so $a$ and $c$ are opposite parity.
Taking $\pmod{4}$ gives the following:
If $a=0$ then the LHS is odd, but for $n \geq 5$, $n!$ is even: contradiction
If $a=1$, then the LHS becomes $3+(-1)^b$ and the RHS is $0$, so we get $b$ even. However, we also get that $c$ is even from the opposite parity condition. But then, taking $\pmod{8}$ gets that the LHS is $4$, while the RHS is $0$ because $n \geq 5$: contradiction.
So we have $a \geq 2$. then the LHS becomes $1+(-1)^b$ and the RHS is $0$, so $b$ is odd.
Now consider $\pmod{8}$.
If $a=2$, then $c$ is odd, so $5^c \equiv 5 \pmod{8}$. Since we know $b$ is odd, we see that $3^b \equiv 3 \pmod{8}$, so the LHS is equal to $4$ but the RHS must be $0$: contradiction.
So $a \geq 3$. Then we get $5^c + 3^b \equiv 5^c+3 \pmod{8}$. Since the RHS is $0$, we have $5^c \equiv 5 \pmod{8}$, which implies that $c$ is odd and $a$ is even.

Therefore, $a$ is even, $b$ is odd, and $c$ is odd. Let $a=2x,b=2y+1,c=2z+1$. Then the condition rewrites as:
$$4^x+3\cdot 9^y+5\cdot 25^z = n!$$Now, taking $\pmod{5}$, we see that $(-1)^x+3\cdot (-1)^y \equiv 0 \pmod{5}$. However, we can easily verify that this has no solutions. Thus any $n \geq 5$ fails. $\blacksquare$
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jeteagle
480 posts
#19 • 1 Y
Y by kevinmathz
Solved this when I was sleeping lel.

When $n \le 4$, we see that the solutions are $(a, b, c, n) = (2, 0, 0, 3), (1, 1, 0, 3), (4, 1, 1, 4).$

We will now prove that any $n \ge 5$ won't have any solutions. Notice how $n! \equiv 0 \pmod 8, n! \equiv 0 \pmod 3, n! \equiv 0 \pmod 5.$
First, if $b \ge 1$ with $\mod 3$, we see that $2^a+5^c \equiv (-1)^a+(-1)^c \equiv 0 \pmod 3$ which means $a$ and $c$ have different parities.
Next, if we take $\mod 8$, we have two cases.

Case 1: $2^a \equiv 4 \pmod 8, 3^b+5^c \equiv 4 \pmod 8.$
We immediately see that $a = 2$. Next, for $3^b+5^c \equiv 4 \pmod 8$, we must have $3^b \equiv 3 \pmod 8$ and $5^c \equiv 1 \pmod 8$, which means $c \equiv 0 \pmod 2$. Because $b \ge 1$ as $b \equiv 1 \pmod 2$, we see that $a$ and $c$ have the same parity, a contradiction.

Case 2: $3^b+5^c \equiv 0 \pmod 8.$
We must have $3^b \equiv 3 \pmod 8$ and $5^c \equiv 5 \pmod 8$ in this case, which is equivalent to $b \equiv c \equiv 1\pmod 2$. Because $b \ge 1$, we have $a$ and $c$ must be different parities, so $a$ is even. Finally, if we take $\mod 5$, we see that $2^a \equiv 4, 1\pmod 5$, while $3^b \equiv 3, 2 \pmod 5$, a because $2^a+3^b \equiv 0 \pmod 5$, we have a contradiction.

Therefore, the only solutions are the ones stated above when $n \le 4.$
This post has been edited 1 time. Last edited by jeteagle, Jan 1, 2021, 5:12 PM
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pad
1671 posts
#20
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When $n \le 4$, it can be confirmed that the solutions are $(a, b, c, n) = (2, 0, 0, 3), (1, 1, 0, 3), (4, 1, 1, 4)$. Henceforth assume $n\ge 5$.
  • Case 1: $a\ge 2$. Then mod 4 gives $(-1)^b+1\equiv 0 \pmod4$, so $b$ is odd; let $b=2k+1$ for some $k\ge 0$. If $a$ is even, then $4^{a/2}+3\cdot 9^k+5^c=n!$, so taking mod 5 gives $(-1)^{a/2} + 3(-1)^k \equiv 0 \pmod5$. This is impossible since the LHS is even and absolutely bounded by 4. Hence $a$ is odd; let $a=2\ell+1$ for some $\ell\ge 0$. Now $2\cdot 4^\ell+3\cdot 9^k+5^c=n!$, so taking mod 3 gives $2+(-1)^c \equiv 0 \pmod3$. Hence $c$ is even; let $c=2m$ for some $m\ge 0$. Now the equation becomes $2\cdot 4^\ell+3\cdot 9^k+25^m=n!$. Then mod 8 gives $2\cdot 4^\ell +3+1 \equiv 0 \pmod8$, but this is impossible both when $\ell=0$ and $\ell\ge 1$.
  • Case 2: $a=1$. The equation is $3^b+5^c=n!-2$. Then mod 4 gives $(-1)^b+1\equiv -2\pmod4$, so $b$ is even; let $b=2k$ for some $k\ge 0$. Taking instead mod 3 gives $(-1)^c\equiv -2\pmod3$, so $c$ is even; let $c=2m$ for some $m\ge 0$. The equation is $9^k+25^m=n!-2$. Taking mod 8 gives $2\equiv -2\pmod8$, contradiction.
  • Case 3: $a=0$. The equation is $3^b+5^c=n!-1$. Now mod 4 gives $(-1)^b+1\equiv -1\pmod4$, contradiction.
So there are no solutions for $n\ge 5$, and we conclude.
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AMN300
563 posts
#21
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First suppose $n \le 4$. $n=0, 1, 2$ clearly yield no solutions since then the left hand side is less than 3.
-If $n=3$ we have $2^a + 3^b + 5^c = 6$, so $c \le 1$. $c=1$ means $2^a+3^b=1$ which can't hold. So $c=0$. We want to solve $2^a+3^b=5$ and we can check that the solutions are $\boxed{a=1,b=1,c=0,n=3}$ and $\boxed{a=2,b=0,c=0,n=3}$ by inspection.
-If $n=4$ we have $2^a + 3^b + 5^c = 24$, so $c \le 1$.
--If $c=0$ then $2^a+3^b=23$, so $b \le 2$, but we can check there are no solutions by hand.
--If $c=1$ then $2^a+3^b=19$. Thus $b \le 2$. We can check by inspection that the only solution is $\boxed{a=4,b=1,c=1,n=4}$.

If $a=0$ and $n \ge 5$: then $1+3^b+5^c=n!$. The left hand side is odd and the right hand side is even, contradiction.

If $b=0$ and $n \ge 5$: then $2^a+5^c+1=n!$. We have already done the case $a=0$.
-If $a=1$ then we want to solve $5^c+3=n!$, but the left hand side is not $0 \pmod{3}$ and the right hand side is, contradiction.
-If $a \ge 2$ then we have $1^c+1 \equiv 0 \pmod{4}$ which cannot hold.

If $c=0$ and $n \ge 5$: we have already done the cases when $a=0$ or $b=0$, so $a, b \ge 1$. Now $(-1)^a+1 \equiv 0 \pmod{3}$ so $a$ is odd.
-If $a=1$ then we want to solve $3+3^b = n!$. The left hand side is not divisible by $9$ but the right hand side is, contradiction.
-If $a \ge 2$ then since $a$ is odd, $a \ge 3$. Then we have $3^b+1 \equiv 0 \pmod{8}$ which is not possible.

Thus $a,b,c \ge 1$ and $n \ge 5$: then $(-1)^a + (-1)^c \equiv 0 \pmod{3}$, so $a, c$ have opposite parity.
-If $a=1$ then by the above, $c$ is even. Now $2+(-2)^b \equiv 0 \pmod{5}$, so $b \equiv 1 \pmod{4}$, so $b$ is odd. But $2+3^b+(-3)^c \equiv 0 \pmod{8}$. But $b$ is odd and $c$ is even so the left hand side is $2+3+1 = 6 \pmod{8}$, contradiction.
-If $a=2$ then by the above, $c$ is odd. Now $4+(-2)^b \equiv 0 \pmod{5}$ so $b$ is even. Then $4+3^b+(-3)^c \equiv 0 \pmod{8}$. But $b$ is even and $c$ is odd so the left hand side is $4+1+5 = 10 \pmod{8}$, contradiction.
-If $a \ge 3$ then $2^a \equiv 0 \pmod{4}$, so $(-1)^b+1 \equiv 0 \pmod{4}$, so $b$ is odd. Then $2^a+(-2)^b \equiv 0 \pmod{5}$. This means $a \equiv 1 \pmod{4}$, so $a$ is odd. Therefore $c$ is even. Since $a \ge 3$, $2^a \equiv 0 \pmod{8}$ so $3^b+(-3)^c \equiv 0 \pmod{8}$. But $b$ is odd and $c$ is even, so the left hand side is $3+1 = 4 \pmod{8}$, contradiction.
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megarnie
5542 posts
#22
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If $n<4$, we can find that the only solutions are $(a,b,c,n)$ $\boxed{(2,0,0,3)}$, $\boxed{(1,1,0,3)}$.

If $n=4$, we have $c<2, a<5, b<3$. If $c=0$, we find that there are no solutions by testing out values for $b$. If $c=1$, then we find no solutions unless $b=1$. Therefore, $\boxed{(4,1,1,4)}$ is the only solution when $n=4$.

Now it remains to find all solutions when $n>4$. We can take powers of $2,3,5$ $\pmod{120}$.

$2^a$ $\{1,2,4,8,16,32,64\}$
$3^b$ $\{1,3,9,27,81\}$
$5^c$ $\{1,5,25\}$.
No three add up to $0\pmod{120}$ so we are done.
This post has been edited 1 time. Last edited by megarnie, Mar 6, 2022, 1:16 AM
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HamstPan38825
8857 posts
#23 • 1 Y
Y by megarnie
Assume $n \geq 5$. Mod 5, we we have $$2^a + 3^b \equiv 0 \pmod 5,$$which implies that $a, b$ must be the same parity. Mod 3, we have $$2^a+5^c \equiv 0 \pmod 3,$$implying that $a$ and $c$ must be opposite parity. Now assume $a \geq 2$ -- then mod 4, $$3^b + 5^c \equiv 0 \pmod 4,$$implies that $b$ and $c$ are the same parity mod 5. Combined with the previous two facts, this is an obvious contradiction.

Now we get rid of edge cases. If $a=1$, then we have $$3^b + 5^c + 2 = n!.$$Modulo 120, $3^b+5^c \equiv 118 \pmod {120}$. But since $3^b \equiv 3, 9, 27, 81 \pmod {120}$ and $5^c \equiv 5, 25 \pmod {120}$, no combination of the two can attain 118, contradiction. Thus we only need to consider $n \leq 4$.

For $n=4$, $3^b+5^c=22$ has no solutions. For $n=3$, $3^b+5^c=4$ solves to get $(b, c) = (1, 0)$; for any smaller $n$, there are also no solutions. Thus we have exhausted this case.

Now, we consider $$2^a+3^b+5^c = 24.$$If $c=1, 2^a+3^b=19$, and if $b=1$ we obtain $a=4$ works. If $c=0$, then $2^a+3^b=23$, which has no solutions. For $n=3$, we also have the solution $(a, b, c)=(2, 0, 0)$. Thus the answers are $(4, 1, 1, 4)$, $(1, 1, 0, 3)$ and $(2, 0, 0, 3)$.
This post has been edited 1 time. Last edited by HamstPan38825, Sep 5, 2021, 2:40 AM
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OlyMan
124 posts
#25
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The casework solutions are quite good, but mod 120 also works very well. The only solutions are $(a,b,c,n)=(1,1,0,3),(2,0,0,3),(4,1,1,4).$ These clearly work. Now we analyse $2^{a},3^{b},5^{c}\pmod{120}$. We get $2^{a}\equiv \{1,2,4,8,16,32,64\}\pmod {120}$, $3^{b}\equiv \{1,3,9,27,81\}\pmod {120}$ and $5^{c}\equiv \{1,5,25\}\pmod {120}$. Now, clearly, we have $2^{a}+3^{b}+5^{c}$ is not congruent to $0$ mod 120, so there exist no non-negative integer $a,b,c$ which satisfy $2^{a}+3^{b}+5^{c} =5!$. But we have $(n-1)!$ divides $n!$ for all $n.$ Hence no interger $n > 5$ satisfies the equation. We are done. $\boxed{}$
This post has been edited 3 times. Last edited by OlyMan, Oct 14, 2021, 12:01 PM
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OlyMan
124 posts
#26
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sunfishho wrote:
v_Enhance wrote:
A tricky way to do this is to take modulo $120$, since \begin{align*} 	2^a \pmod{120} &\in \{ 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64 \} \\ 	3^b \pmod{120} &\in \{ 1, 3, 9, 27, 81 \} \\ 	5^c \pmod{120} &\in \{ 1, 5, 25 \} \end{align*}and by inspection one notes that no three elements have vanishing sum modulo $120$.
Just wondering, what is the motivation for picking 120?

Isn't that "intuitive", what I did was that I found the possible sols and then tried to find sols for n=5 , but ofc could not succeed, and I though about the fact (n-1)! divides n! .
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VulcanForge
626 posts
#28
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Pure. Spammage.

By inspection we see for $n\le 4$ the solutions are $(a,b,c,n)=(1,1,0,3),(2,0,0,3),(4,1,1,4)$. We undergo pain in order to show there are no solutions when $n \ge 5$.

If $a \ge 3$ then taking$\pmod{4}$ gives $b$ odd, and then taking$\pmod{8}$ gives $c$ odd, so we're solving $2^a+3\cdot 9^{b'}+5\cdot 25^{c'}=n!$. Taking$\pmod{3}$ gives $a$ even, and then$\pmod{5}$ gives $(-1)^{a'}+3\cdot (-1)^{b'} \equiv 0 \pmod{5}$: this is impossible.

If $a=2$ then$\pmod{4}$ gives $b$ odd, and then (noting that $c>0$, otherwise$\pmod{3}$ gives a contradiction)$\pmod{5}$ gives $4+3 \cdot (-1)^{b'} \equiv 0 \pmod{5}$: this is impossible.

If $a=1$ then$\pmod{4}$ gives $b$ even, and then (noting that $c>0$, otherwise$\pmod{8}$ gives a contradiction)$\pmod{5}$ gives $2+(-1)^b \equiv 0 \pmod{5}$: this is impossible.

If $a=0$ then $2^a+3^b+5^c$ is odd.
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sanyalarnab
924 posts
#29
Y by
Cute one!
For $n\le 4$, just case bash to get some (a,b,c,n). Please search up for those. Real fun is for showing no solutions for $n\ge 5$.
Assume FTSOC $n\ge 5$.
Then $n! \equiv 0 \pmod{5}$
$\implies 2^a+3^b+5^c \equiv 0 \pmod{5}$
$\implies 2^a \equiv -3^b \pmod{5}$ (*)
Now $n! = 2^a+3^b+5^c \equiv 2^a+(-1)^b+1 \equiv 0 \pmod{4}$
If b is even,
$2^a \equiv 2 \pmod{4}$
This implies $a=1$.
Thus putting in (*),
$3^b \equiv 3 \pmod{5}$
$\implies 9^m \equiv 3 \pmod{5}$, where $b=2m$ for some natural $m$.
This is not possible for any $m$ and hence a contradiction to the assumption that $b$ is even.
Hence $\boxed{\text{b Is odd!}}$.
This gives in (*) $\implies 2^a \equiv (-3)^b \pmod{5}$
$\implies 2^a \equiv 2^b \pmod{5}$
$\implies 2^{a-b} \equiv 1 \pmod{5}$
If $a-b$ is odd,
$2^{a-b} \equiv \{2,3\} \pmod{5}$, which is not possible.
Hence, $a-b$ is even, or $\boxed{\text{a is odd!}}$.
Now $n!=2^a+3^b+5^c \equiv (-1)^a+(-1)^c \equiv -1+(-1)^c \equiv 0 \pmod{3}$
$\implies (-1)^c \equiv 1 \pmod{3}$
Hence $\boxed{\text{c is even!}}$.
Final move: checking (mod 8).
$n! \equiv 2^a+3^b+5^c \equiv 2^a+3+1 \equiv 0 \pmod{8}$
$\implies 2^a \equiv 4 \pmod{8}$
This immediately implies $a=2$ which is not odd. Contradiction on the initial assumption that $n\ge 5$. So done!
Remark: this problem was good but is it good enough for a TST#4?? It's just spamming modulo 3,4,5,8! That's all!
This post has been edited 4 times. Last edited by sanyalarnab, Oct 27, 2021, 4:58 PM
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Mogmog8
1080 posts
#30 • 1 Y
Y by centslordm
Assume FTSOC $n\ge 5,$ noting $2^a+3^b+5^c\equiv n!\equiv 0\pmod{120}.$ We see $2^a\equiv 1,2,4,8,16,32,64\pmod{120},$ $3^b\equiv 1,3,27,81\pmod{120},$ and $5^c\equiv 1,5,25\pmod{120}.$ Since $64+27+25<120,$ we know $2^b\equiv 81\pmod{120}$ so $2^a+5^c\equiv 39\pmod{120},$ which is absurd. Hence, $n=1,2,3,4.$

Case 1: $n=1.$ Note $2^a+3^b+5^c\ge 1+1+1=3$ so we have no solutions.

Case 2: $n=2.$ Note $2^a+3^b+5^c\ge 3>2!$ so we have no solutions.

Case 3: $n=3.$ We proceed by casework on $a.$ If $a=0,$ we have no solutions. If $a=1,$ $(1,1,0,3)$ works. If $a=2,$ $(2,0,0,3)$ works.

Case 4: $n=4.$ Again, we use caswork on $a.$ If $a=0,1,2,3$ we have no solutions. If $a=4,$ $b=c=1$ or $(4,1,1,4)$ works.

Our solutions are $(a,b,c,n)=\boxed{(1,1,0,3),(2,0,0,3),(4,1,1,4)}.$ $\square$
This post has been edited 1 time. Last edited by Mogmog8, Mar 6, 2022, 1:14 AM
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jasperE3
11136 posts
#31
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Exhaustive casework.

Case 1: $a\ge3$ and $n\ge5$
Taking$\pmod8$, we have:
$$3^b+(-3)^c\equiv0\pmod8.$$Let $b=2y+e_1$ and $c=2z+e_2$ with $\{e_1,e_2\}\subseteq\{0,1\}$, then $3^{e_1}+(-3)^{e_2}\equiv0\pmod8$, so $e_1=e_2=0$. Then:
$$2^a+9^y+25^z=n!.$$Taking$\pmod3$ gives:
$$(-1)^a\equiv-1\pmod3$$so $a$ is odd. Let $a=2x+3$ for some $x\ge0$, then:
$$8\cdot4^x+9^y+25^z=n!.$$Finally,$\pmod5$ gives:
$$3\cdot(-1)^x+(-1)^y\equiv0\pmod5,$$a contradiction (since this is impossible for any $x$ and $y$).

Case 2: $a\le2$ and $n\ge5$
Case 2.1: $a=0$ and $n\ge5$
We have:
$$1+3^b+5^c=n!.$$By$\pmod4$, we have $2+(-1)^b\equiv0\pmod4$, so no solutions exist in this case.

Case 2.2: $a=1$ and $n\ge5$
We have:
$$2+3^b+5^c=n!.$$By$\pmod4$, $3+(-1)^b\equiv0\pmod4$ and so $b$ is even. Let $b=2y$.
By$\pmod3$, $2+(-1)^c\equiv0\pmod3$ and so $c$ is even. Let $c=2z$.
The equation transforms into:
$$2+9^y+25^z=n!.$$By$\pmod8$, $4\equiv0\pmod8$ which is absurd. Hence no solutions.

Case 2.3: $a=2$ and $n\ge5$
We have:
$$4+3^b+5^c=n!.$$By$\pmod4$, $(-1)^b+1\equiv0\pmod4$ and so $b$ is odd. Let $b=2y+1$.
By$\pmod5$, $-1+3\cdot(-1)^y\equiv0\pmod5$ which is impossible.

Case 3: $n\le4$
Case 3.1: $n\in\{0,1,2\}$
This is also impossible as:
$$n!=2^a+3^b+5^c\ge1+1+1=3.$$
Case 3.2: $n=3$
Then $2^a+3^b+5^c=6$, so $5^c\le6$. This means that $c\le1$. If $c=1$ then $2^a+3^b=1$ which has no solutions. If $c=0$ then $2^a+3^b=5$, so $b\le1$. If $b=1$ then $a=1$, whereas if $b=0$ then $a=2$, which gives that $(a,b,c,n)=\boxed{(2,0,0,3)}$ and $\boxed{(1,1,0,3)}$ are solutions

Case 3.3: $n=4$
Then $2^a+3^b+5^c=24$, so $c\le1$.
If $c=0$ then $2^a+3^b=23$, so $b\le2$. For each of these cases there is no corresponding value of $a$ that works.
If $c=1$ then $2^a+3^b=19$, so $b\le2$. If $b=0$ or $b=2$ no solutions exist, but if $b=1$ we have that $(a,b,c,n)=\boxed{(4,1,1,4)}$ is a solution.
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kamatadu
465 posts
#32 • 1 Y
Y by HoripodoKrishno
O maa gu turu lob! I never knew $\pmod{120}$ had such nice modulos for powers for $2$, $3$ and $5$.

For $n\ge 5$, take $\pmod{120}$ to get the following powers:
\begin{align*}
    2^a&\equiv\left\{1,2,4,8,16,32,64\right\}\pmod{120}\\
    3^b&\equiv\left\{1,3,9,27,81\right\}\pmod{120}\\
    5^c&\equiv\left\{1,5,25\right\}\pmod{120}
.\end{align*}
Now some case bashing shows none of these actually work (in other words left for the reader to prove :rotfl: ). Now finally some more case bashing for $4!$ and $3!$ (the ones below these don't work due to size reasons) show that $\boxed{(3,2,0,0)}$, $\boxed{(3,1,1,0)}$ and $\boxed{(4,4,1,1)}$ are the only ones that actually work for the tuples of $(n,a,b,c)$ respectively (which is again left for the reader to prove :rotfl: ) and we are done.
This post has been edited 1 time. Last edited by kamatadu, Apr 15, 2023, 6:15 PM
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F10tothepowerof34
195 posts
#33
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Claim: The only solutions are $\boxed{(a,b,c,n)=(1,1,0,3), (2,0,0,3), (4,1,1,4)}$
Proof:
After a manual check, the only solutions for $n\le4$, are the ones stated in the claim, so from now on, $FTSOC$ assume $n\ge5$

Part 1: Taking$\pmod 4$
$2^a+3^b+5^c\equiv 3+1 \pmod 4 \Longleftrightarrow 3^b\equiv 3 \pmod 4$ however this in only possible when $b\equiv 1 \pmod 2$, thus $b$ is odd.
Part 2: Taking$\pmod 5$
$2^a+3^b+5^c\equiv 0 \pmod 5\Longleftrightarrow 2^a\equiv -3^b$ furthermore, since $b$ is odd, we can rewrite the expression as $2^a\equiv \left(-3\right)^b \pmod 5$ thus since $b$ is odd, $\left(-3\right)^b\equiv 2,3 \pmod 5$, which forces $2^a\equiv 2,3 \pmod 5$ which implies that $a\equiv 1\pmod 2$, or $a$ is odd.
Part 3: Taking $\pmod 3$
$2^a+3^b+5^c\equiv (-1)^a+0+(-1)^c\pmod 3 \Longrightarrow n!\equiv 0\equiv (-1)^a+(-1)^c\pmod 3$ thus $a$ and $c$ are pairwise distinct, however this forces $c\equiv 0\pmod 2$ or $c$ to be even, from the fact that $a$ is odd.
Part 4 (final part): Taking $\pmod 8$
$n!=2^a+3^b+5^c\equiv 4+3+1\equiv0\pmod 8$, thus$2^a\equiv 4\pmod8$ however this is only possible when $a=2$, which contradicts the previously statement that $a$ is odd. Thus we have reached a contradiction, so there exist no solution for $n\ge5$ $\blacksquare$
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huashiliao2020
1292 posts
#34
Y by
lol just throw random things at the board until it sticks

Note that $(n,a,b,c,)=(3,2,0,0),(3,1,1,0),(4,4,1,1)$ are the only solutions manually caseworked for $n<5$, so assume henceforth that n is at least 5. We see $$2^a\equiv 1,2,4,8,16,32,64\pmod{120},3^b\equiv 1,3,27,81\pmod{120},5^c\equiv 1,5,25\pmod{120}.$$$$64+27+25<120\implies 3^b\equiv 81\pmod{120}\implies 2^a+5^c\equiv 39\pmod{120},$$which can be checked to see that it doesn't work, so our only solutions are indeed the ones listed above.

I also had a decently long casework bash but its just elementary techniques and since I'm not going to learn anything from it (usually imo diophantine you don't really need any skill its like fe but usually easier) i wont type it up
This post has been edited 1 time. Last edited by huashiliao2020, Aug 9, 2023, 6:59 PM
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Captain_Baran
36 posts
#35
Y by
$\textcolor{red}{Claim:}$ $n<5.$
$\textcolor{red}{Proof:}$ Assume $n\geq5.$ Then if $a\geq1$ we have $3^{b}+5^{c}\equiv0\pmod 4$ and $b\equiv c\equiv 1\pmod 2.$
Say $b=2b_1+1$ and $c=2c_1+1.$ Then if we look at the expression in modulo 3 we see $2^{a}+5\equiv0\pmod3$ and, $a\equiv 0\pmod 2.$ Say $a=2a_1.$ Then in modulo 5 we have $2^{2a_1}+3^{2b_1+1}\equiv 0\pmod 5.$ Since $2^{2a_1}\equiv\{4,1\}$ and $3^{2b_1+1}\equiv\{3,2\}$ we have a contradiction and $a$ must be $0$ and $b=4b_2+1$.
Now let's solve $2+3^{4b_2+1}+5^{2c_1+1}$ Looking at the expression in modulo 9 gives us $5^{2c_1+1}\equiv7\pmod9$ and $c=6k+2$ but since $c=2c_1+1=6k+2$ means $c\equiv1\equiv0\pmod 2$ we have a contradiction. b must be equal to 0. Now we have $5+5^{2c_1+1}=n!$ but for $n\geq5$ this means $10\equiv 0\pmod 3.$ Contradiction. Our claim is right.

Now let's solve for $n\leq4$:
For $n=4,$ we have $3^{b}+5^{c}=\{14,8,6,10,4,2\}$. In this case only $\{a,b,c,n\}=\{4,1,1,4\}$ is possible.
For $n=3$ we have $2^{a}+3^{b}={5,4,3,2}$. Only $2^{a}+3^{b}=5$ meaning either $\{a,b,c,n\}=\{2,0,0,3\}$ or $\{a,b,c,n\}=\{1,1,0,3\}$ is possible in this case.
For $n\leq2$ we have $n!\leq 2$ but $2^{a}+3^{b}+5^{c}\geq 3$ a contradiction. The only possible solutions are $\{a,b,c,n\}=\boxed{\{4,1,1,4\}},\boxed{\{2,0,0,3\}},\boxed{\{1,1,0,3\}}.$
This post has been edited 3 times. Last edited by Captain_Baran, Sep 8, 2023, 11:00 AM
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dolphinday
1318 posts
#36
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We claim that the only solutions are $(a, b, c, n) = (1, 1, 0, 3), (2, 0, 0, 3), (4, 1, 1, 4)$.
There are clearly no other solutions for $a, b, c, n \leq 4$. (Feeling kind of lazy)

Taking $\pmod{120}$ for $n > 4$, then

\[2^a + 3^b + 5^c \equiv 0\pmod{12}\]
\[2^a \equiv 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64\pmod{120}\]
\[3^b \equiv 3, 9, 27, 81\pmod{120}\]
\[5^c \equiv 5, 25\pmod{120}\].

By inspection, none of these add up to $0\pmod{120}$, so it is impossible for $n > 4$.

Hence, the only solutions are $(a, b, c, n) = (1, 1, 0, 3), (2, 0, 0, 3), (4, 1, 1, 4)$.
This post has been edited 2 times. Last edited by dolphinday, Oct 20, 2023, 5:54 PM
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joshualiu315
2513 posts
#37
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The solutions are

\begin{align*}
(a,b,c, n) &= (2,0,0,3) \\
&= (1,1,0,3) \\
&= (4, 1, 1, 4)
\end{align*}
Notice that if $n \le 4$, we can manually check each case and find each of the above solutions. We will prove that there are no more solutions for $n>4$. For each $n>4$, note that

\[120 \mid n! = 2^a+3^b+5^c.\]
However, analyzing each of the residues of each individual power, we see that none of them cancel modulo $120$. Thus, there are no solutions when $n>4$.
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mannshah1211
651 posts
#38
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Ah yes, the famous 5M TSTST problem.
Assume that $n \ge 5$.
We'll analyze modulo $120$. $2^a$ modulo $60$ is $\{1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64\}$, $3^b$ modulo $120$ is $\{1, 3, 9, 27, 81\}$, and $5^c$ modulo $120$ is $\{ 1, 5, 25 \}$. Note that the max sum of residues is $170,$ which means that our residue sum must be exactly $120$. Note that if the second residue is $\le 27,$ then the max sum of residues is $116 < 120,$ so our second residue must be $81$. Then, the sum of the remaining residues must be $39$. Note that this isn't possible (just check that none of $39 - 1, 39 - 5, 39 - 25$ appear in the first set), so there's no solutions for $n \ge 5$. It remains to find the solutions for $n \le 4$. For $n \in \{0, 1, 2 \},$ $2 \ge n! = 2^a + 3^b + 5^c \ge 3,$ clearly a contradiction. So, only cases remaining are $n = 3,$ and $n = 4$. For $n = 3,$ we have $2^a + 3^b + 5^c = 6,$ which gives solution $(a, b, c) = (1, 1, 0), (2, 0, 0).$ For $n = 4,$ we have $2^a + 3^b + 5^c = 24,$ whic gives solution $(a, b, c) = (4, 1, 1).$ So, the only solutions are $(a, b, c, n) = (2, 0, 0, 3), (1, 1, 0, 3), (4, 1, 1, 4).$
This post has been edited 1 time. Last edited by mannshah1211, Jan 17, 2024, 6:29 PM
Reason: Forgot the (2, 0, 0, 3) trivial solution :( I need sleep
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Cusofay
85 posts
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First we can see that $(a,b,c,n)\in\{(1,1,0,3),(2,0,0,3),(4,1,1,4) \}$ are the only solutions for $n\leq 4$. Now if $n\geq 5$. Mod $4$ implies $b$ is odd and mod $3$ gives us $a,c$ have different parities. If $c$ is even and $a,b$ are odd, taking the expression mod $8$ ends the case. If $a$ is even and $b,c$ are odd then mod $5$ ends the problem.

$$\mathbb{Q.E.D.}$$
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megahertz13
3177 posts
#40
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The only solutions are $(2,0,0)$, $(1,1,0)$, and $(4,1,1)$, which clearly work. One can manually check that these are the only solutions for $n\le 4$. Now we prove that there are no other solutions for $n\ge 5$.

The idea is to take $\mod {120}$. Note that $$2^a\pmod {120}\in \{1,2,4,8,16,32,64\}$$$$3^b\pmod {120}\in \{1,3,9,27,81\}$$$$5^c\pmod {120}\in \{1,3,9,27,81\}.$$Note that if you choose one element from each of these sets, they cannot sum to $0\pmod {120}$. However, $n\ge 5$ implies $$n!\equiv 0\pmod {120},$$done.
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ali123456
48 posts
#41 • 1 Y
Y by Hamzaachak
Beautiful
This post has been edited 1 time. Last edited by ali123456, Mar 26, 2025, 10:33 PM
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