Maths Olympiad Prep

Library / /12 of 121

Number theory Difficulty 5.2 AIME, harder Prove it India

Problem:
Show that the equation
x2+y2+z2=(xy)(yz)(zx) x^{2}+y^{2}+z^{2}=(x-y)(y-z)(z-x)
has infinitely many solutions in integers x,y,zx, y, z.

Solution

Solution:
We seek solutions (x,y,z)(x, y, z) which are in arithmetic progression. Let us put yx=zy=d>0y-x=z-y=d>0 so that the equation reduces to the form
3y2+2d2=2d3 3 y^{2}+2 d^{2}=2 d^{3}
Thus we get 3y2=2(d1)d23 y^{2}=2(d-1) d^{2}. We conclude that 2(d1)2(d-1) is 3 times a square. This is satisfied if d1=6n2d-1=6 n^{2} for some nn. Thus d=6n2+1d=6 n^{2}+1 and 3y2=d22(6n2)3 y^{2}=d^{2} \cdot 2\left(6 n^{2}\right) giving us y2=4d2n2y^{2}=4 d^{2} n^{2}. Thus we can take y=2dn=2n(6n2+1)y=2 d n=2 n\left(6 n^{2}+1\right). From this we obtain x=yd=(2n1)(6n2+1),z=y+d=(2n+1)(6n2+1)x=y-d=(2 n-1)\left(6 n^{2}+1\right), z=y+d=(2 n+1)\left(6 n^{2}+1\right). It is easily verified that
(x,y,z)=((2n1)(6n2+1),2n(6n2+1),(2n+1)(6n2+1)) (x, y, z)=\left((2 n-1)\left(6 n^{2}+1\right), 2 n\left(6 n^{2}+1\right),(2 n+1)\left(6 n^{2}+1\right)\right)
is indeed a solution for a fixed nn and this gives an infinite set of solutions as nn varies over natural numbers.

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.