Problem:
Determine all integers for which is the square of an integer.
Problem:
Determine all integers for which is the square of an integer.
Solution:
We may limit the search to nonnegative integers , since . Suppose there is a nonnegative integer such that
Note that the factors and are not both negative, since their sum is nonnegative, so they are both positive. Now the only ways to factor into two positive integer factors are and . Also since .
If and , then
and .
If and , then
and .
Both of these solutions indeed work in the original problem. Finally, allowing for negative , we compute the answers to be , and .