# find a specific question on Main

I just answered another question on $2^4 = 4^2.$

Does anyone know how to find the question where someone had a decent conjecture on all rational solutions to $x^y = y^x?$

Turns out all rational solutions are, with an integer $n,$

$$x = \left( 1 + \frac{1}{n} \right)^n, \; \; y = \left( 1 + \frac{1}{n} \right)^{n+1},$$ where $$x^y = y^x = x^x \left( 1 + \frac{1}{n} \right)^x$$ need not be rational. I would say $n \neq -1$ in any case. Not quite sure whether $n \leq -2$ give repeats of the solutions with $n \geq 1.$ Alright, given $n \geq 1,$ it is easy enough to see that we get a repeat from $-1-n.$ So, we might as well restrict to $n \geq 1.$

• I'll add that there is also this question, which asks about the same equation for integers, but the answers provide also some information about rational solutions. And there are lots of linked questions to that one. (In fact, it is linked from the post mentioned by Daniel Fischer.) – Martin Sleziak Jan 18 '15 at 5:55