This is not a research problem, but challenging enough that I've decided to post it in here:
Determine all triples $(a,b,c)$ of non-negative integers, satisfying $$ 1+3^a = 3^b+5^c. $$
This is not a research problem, but challenging enough that I've decided to post it in here:
Determine all triples $(a,b,c)$ of non-negative integers, satisfying $$ 1+3^a = 3^b+5^c. $$
I can't resist this: The young Chris Skinner showed that if $a$, $b$, $c$, $d$ are fixed positive integers, and $p$ and $q$ are positive coprime integers then the equation $$ ap^x + bq^y = c+ dp^z q^w $$ has a bounded number of solutions in $(x,y,z,w)$ and that a bound on these could be computed (and the equation solved in practice). This solves (in principle) the more general equation $1+3^a 5^d = 3^b+ 5^c$. Anyway, there is a large literature around such exponential diophantine equations, and Skinner's paper will give some references.
Following a reference from Skinner's paper, Theorem 4.01 of Brenner and Foster gives an explicit treatment of the equation $$ 3^a + 7^b=3^c+5^d, $$ which completely resolves the problem in this question (take $b=0$). Their proof is elementary, and the only non-trivial solution to the equation in the question is $3^3+1 = 3 + 5^2$.