How many ordered pairs of integers satisfy ?
Pick one
Solution
Notice that , and if is a solution, then so is . Assume . Squaring both sides of the given equation gives , so . Because and are positive integers, either , or and . The first case gives as a solution, and the second case gives as a solution. Because is squared in the given equation, the corresponding negative values for also give solutions: and . There are 4 solutions in all.
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