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Indian National Mathematical Olympiad, 2004

Number theory Difficulty 6.1 National Olympiad Prove it India

Problem:
Let SS denote the set of all 6-tuples (a,b,c,d,e,f)(a, b, c, d, e, f) of positive integers such that a2+b2+c2+d2+e2=f2a^{2}+b^{2}+c^{2}+d^{2}+e^{2}=f^{2}. Consider the set
T={abcdef:(a,b,c,d,e,f)∈S} T=\{a b c d e f:(a, b, c, d, e, f) \in S\}
Find the greatest common divisor of all the members of TT.

Solution

Solution:
We show that the required gcd is 24. Consider an element (a,b,c,d,e,f)∈S(a, b, c, d, e, f) \in S. We have
a2+b2+c2+d2+e2=f2 a^{2}+b^{2}+c^{2}+d^{2}+e^{2}=f^{2}
We first observe that not all a,b,c,d,ea, b, c, d, e can be odd. Otherwise, we have a2≡b2≡c2≡d2≡e2≡1a^{2} \equiv b^{2} \equiv c^{2} \equiv d^{2} \equiv e^{2} \equiv 1 ( mod 8)(\bmod 8) and hence f2≡5( mod 8)f^{2} \equiv 5(\bmod 8), which is impossible because no square can be congruent to 5 modulo 8. Thus at least one of a,b,c,d,ea, b, c, d, e is even.

Similarly if none of a,b,c,d,ea, b, c, d, e is divisible by 3, then a2≡b2≡c2≡d2≡e2≡1( mod 3)a^{2} \equiv b^{2} \equiv c^{2} \equiv d^{2} \equiv e^{2} \equiv 1(\bmod 3) and hence f2≡2( mod 3)f^{2} \equiv 2(\bmod 3) which again is impossible because no square is congruent to 2 modulo 3. Thus 3 divides abcdefa b c d e f.

There are several possibilities for a,b,c,d,ea, b, c, d, e.

Case 1: Suppose one of them is even and the other four are odd; say aa is even, b,c,d,eb, c, d, e are odd. Then b2+c2+d2+e2≡4( mod 8)b^{2}+c^{2}+d^{2}+e^{2} \equiv 4(\bmod 8). If a2≡4( mod 8)a^{2} \equiv 4(\bmod 8), then f2≡0( mod 8)f^{2} \equiv 0(\bmod 8) and hence 2∣a,4∣f2|a, 4| f giving 8∣af8 \mid a f. If a2≡0( mod 8)a^{2} \equiv 0(\bmod 8), then f2≡4( mod 8)f^{2} \equiv 4(\bmod 8) which again gives that 4∣a4 \mid a and 2∣f2 \mid f so that 8∣af8 \mid a f. It follows that 8∣abcdef8 \mid a b c d e f and hence 24∣abcdef24 \mid a b c d e f.

Case 2: Suppose a,ba, b are even and c,d,ec, d, e are odd. Then c2+d2+e2≡3( mod 8)c^{2}+d^{2}+e^{2} \equiv 3(\bmod 8). Since a2+b2≡0a^{2}+b^{2} \equiv 0 or 44 modulo 8, it follows that f2≡3f^{2} \equiv 3 or 7( mod 8)7(\bmod 8) which is impossible. Hence this case does not arise.

Case 3: If three of a,b,c,d,ea, b, c, d, e are even and two odd, then 8∣abcdef8 \mid a b c d e f and hence 24∣abcdef24|a b c d e f.

Case 4: If four of a,b,c,d,ea, b, c, d, e are even, then again 8∣abcdef8 \mid a b c d e f and 24∣abcdef24|a b c d e f.

Here again for any six tuple (a,b,c,d,e,f)(a, b, c, d, e, f) in SS, we observe that 24∣abcdef24 \mid a b c d e f. Since
12+12+12+22+32=42 1^{2}+1^{2}+1^{2}+2^{2}+3^{2}=4^{2}
We see that (1,1,1,2,3,4)∈S(1,1,1,2,3,4) \in S and hence 24∈T24 \in T. Thus 24 is the gcd of TT.

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