I've noticed that when you flip the base and the exponent in $2^4$ to get $4^2$, you get the same value, $16$. If there are any other numbers that can make this work, let me know. This is just mind-blown for me! Are there any other numbers that work? I used to do this and ta-daaaaaaah!
2026-04-06 16:18:03.1775492283
Besides $2^4$ and $4^2$, are there any other numbers that, with the base and exponent flipped, will equal the same value?
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The numbers would have to share all prime factors. In other words, if one was divisible by 7, the other would have to be as well. Only the power of each prime factor could vary.
The numbers need to be close, or the larger exponential would ruin things. Big exponentials grow fast.
2 and four work because they are close powers of 2.
A close call would be 18 and 12, but no cigars.It is close because two squared is almost equal to three. Since two to the fourth is about 17, 544 and 578 look like candidates as well. But no dice.
Assume there are two prime factors for both numbers, a and b with powers k and l for the first number and m and n for the second. Since a and b a coprime, we can ignore b and look for cases where the powers of a are equal.
The two powers of a are k times a^m times b^n and m times a^k times b^l. We can ignore b again, because a and b are coprime. We need a case where k times a^m=m times a^k. This means k and m are both powers of a. By the same token l and n are powers of b.
EDIT: Similar arguments apply to larger numbers of primes.