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Number theory Difficulty 5.1 AIME, harder Prove it Taiwan

Find all positive integers x,y,z,tx, y, z, t satisfying
xyzt=x+y=z+t xy - zt = x + y = z + t
such that xyxy and ztzt are both perfect squares.

Solution

Solution: There are no positive integer solutions.
Let xy=a2xy = a^2 and zt=c2zt = c^2.
If x+y=z+tx+y=z+t is odd, then xyxy and ztzt are both even, so xyzt=x+y=z+txy-zt = x+y = z+t
is also even, a contradiction. Let s=x+y2s = \frac{x+y}{2}; from the above it follows that ss is an integer. Let b=xy2b = \frac{|x-y|}{2}, d=zt2d = \frac{|z-t|}{2},
then from the original conditions we obtain:
s2=a2+b2=c2+d2 s^2 = a^2 + b^2 = c^2 + d^2
and
2s=a2c2=d2b2. 2s = a^2 - c^2 = d^2 - b^2.
Since in the above two equations, a,da, d and b,cb, c are symmetric, we only need to prove that the above two equations have no solutions under the condition that a,s,da, s, d are positive integers,
b,cb, c are non-negative integers, and not both zero. By symmetry, we may assume bb \ge
cc. We have d2=2s+b2>c2d^2 = 2s + b^2 > c^2, so
d2>c2+d22=s22 d^2 > \frac{c^2 + d^2}{2} = \frac{s^2}{2}
Also
2s=d2b2d2(d2)2=4(d1) 2s = d^2 - b^2 \geq d^2 - (d-2)^2 = 4(d-1)
so we have
s2<ds2+1 \frac{s}{\sqrt{2}} < d \le \frac{s}{2} + 1
from which we know that s<22+2<5s < 2\sqrt{2} + 2 < 5. Because when 1s41 \le s \le 4, s2s^2 can only be decomposed in the form s2+02s^2 + 0^2,
checking shows there is no solution.

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Source: MathNet, licensed CC-BY-4.0. Statement translated into English from the original; metadata (topic, difficulty) added by this project.