Find all integral solutions of the equation .
Solution
First assume . Then . Thus because . If , then , hence the inequality derived above implies . If , then either or and in both cases the only possibility is again. An elementary check shows that all pairs , where is an integer, satisfy the initial equation.
Now assume . Then the equation has no solutions, since the l.h.s. is 0 while the r.h.s. is positive.
Finally assume . Then the l.h.s. of the equation is negative, showing that is negative. Hence and . Denoting and multiplying the equation by leads to new equation . Then . Hence , giving , i.e., , as the only possibility. It is easy to check that this satisfies the equation.
Want a route through all this instead of an archive? The track
puts 2,000 problems in a working order, from AMC 10 level to the IMO shortlist.