Let the general term of sequence {an} be an=51((21+5)n−(21−5)n),n=1,2,… Prove that there exist infinite positive integers m such that am+4am−1 are perfect squares.
Solution
Denote q1=21+5, q2=21−5, and then q1+q2=1, q1q2=−1. Thus, an=51(q1n−q2n),n=1,2,… Hence a1=1,a2=1. Also note that qi+1=qi2 (i=1,2), and there is an+1+an=51(q1n+1−q2n+1)+51(q1n−q2n)=51(q1n(q1+1)−q2n(q2+1))=51(q1n+2−q2n+2), namely, an+2=an+1+an,n=1,2,… It is easy to know that each term of the sequence {an} is a positive integer.
It is easy to calculate that q14+q24=7, and hence a2n+3a2n−1−1=51(q12n+3−q22n+3)⋅51(q12n−1−q22n−1)−1=51(q14n+2+q24n+2−(q1q2)2n−1q14−(q1q2)2n−1q24)−1 =51(q14n+2+q24n+2+q14+q24)−1=51(q14n+2+q24n+2+7)−1=51(q14n+2+q24n+2+2)=[51(q12n+1+q22n+1)]2=a2n+12. Therefore, for any positive integer n, a2n+3a2n−1−1 is a perfect square.
Hence, am+4am−1 are perfect squares for all positive odd numbers m.
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.
Source: MathNet,
licensed CC-BY-4.0.
Statement reproduced verbatim; metadata (topic, difficulty) added by this project.