Find all positive integers such that is a perfect square.
Solutions — 2
Solution 1
For we have . We will prove that there are no other positive integers with this property.
If is odd, , then
It is easy to see that integers of the form are not perfect squares.
If is even, , then , and we have
hence is between two consecutive perfect squares, that is it cannot be a perfect square. The only solution is .
Solution 2
(Wael Hussain Al Saeed) Assume that . For any integer , we have and . Considering the relation modulo 3 we get
hence . It follows for some positive integer .
Considering the relation modulo 4 we obtain
hence , that is for some positive integer , not possible.
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