Problem:
Let and be positive integers such that the equation has real roots and . Prove that and are integers if and only if is the square of an integer. (Here denotes the largest integer not exceeding .)
Solution
Solution:
If and are both integers, then
This proves one implication.
Observe that and . We use the property of integer function: for any real number . Thus
Since and are positive integers, both and must be positive. If , we observe that there is no square between and . Hence, either or . If , then implies that both and are positive reals smaller than 1. Hence cannot be a positive integer. We conclude that .
Putting in this relation, we get
Using for any real number and integer , this reduces to
This shows that and are both integers. On the other hand,
Thus
is a rational number. Since is a rational number, it follows that both and are rational numbers. However, both and are integers. Hence each of and is an integer.
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