Find all quadruples of non-negative integers such that and there exists a non-degenerate triangle with sides of length , , and .
Solution
Note that and , as and are sides of a non-degenerate triangle. So and , as they are integers. Consider two cases: and .
Suppose that . Then . We also have , so , and therefore . We deduce that and that there exists a non-degenerate triangle with sides , , and . Therefore and , so . From it follows that and , and therefore also . Note that there exists a non-degenerate triangle with sides , , and , so the quadruple is a solution.
Now suppose that . By the triangle inequality, we have , so . As , it follows that . As , we have . On the other hand, we have , so , and therefore . Analogously to the previous case, we deduce that the only other solution is .
Therefore the only solutions are the quadruples and .
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