Problem:
Do there exist three different prime numbers such that the sum of any two of them is a square?
Problem:
Do there exist three different prime numbers such that the sum of any two of them is a square?
Solution:
The answer is no. We work modulo (i.e., we look at remainders on division by ). Note that any square is or . Indeed, if is even, , while if is odd, .
Now suppose some three such primes exist. If they are all odd, then each of them is or ; some two must then have the same value modulo (both or both ), and then their sum is , so it cannot be a square.
Thus, the primes are not all odd, so one of them is . Since they are all different, the other two are odd. If these two are both , then again their sum is and cannot be a square. So one of them is , but then this prime plus is congruent to , so that sum cannot be a square. So, once again, we can find two of the three primes whose sum is not a square.