x + y = 5

x^y + y^x = 17
Find x and y

2 answers

by inspection ... 2 and 3 work

not sure about a "formal" solution method

it's all whole numbers, so there are limited solution possibilities
Thanks Scott. By inspection, the ans is quite obvious I think....something like this..
If x is 2 and y is 3, then 17 could be written as 8 + 9

2^3 + 3^2...I think is not a right approach though.