Find all quadruples of positive integers () with the property
Solutions — 2
Solution 1
1. Lemma: If are positive integers with , then follows.
Proof of the lemma: For a given value of we consider a pair with and minimal sum among all such pairs. Without loss of generality let .
First suppose . By assumption, satisfies the quadratic equation
for whose 2nd solution it follows by Vieta's theorem that: and . Thus is an integer, it is positive because , and since and we have , so is a pair with smaller sum , contrary to the choice of .
Hence holds, so , from which and follow.
Since and , the expression is an integer, so by the lemma and thus or .
In the first case and ; satisfies equation (1) for with solutions and , from it follows in each case that , and by substitution one confirms the solution quadruples and . The second case yields correspondingly and .
Solution 2
All summands of the original equation except for are multiples of , hence holds. Thus the cases can be treated by direct checking, yielding the solution quadruples from Solution 1. For (analogously: ) there are no solutions:
Case 1: : Then .
Case 2: : Then, because : .
Case 3: : For this, would have to hold - impossible for .
Case 4: : The quadratic equation in has discriminant , which for lies between the consecutive square numbers and , so , and hence also , is not an integer.