Problem:
Find all quadruples of positive integers , where and are prime numbers and , such that
Solutions — 2
Solution 1
Solution:
First of all, observe that if are both odd, then the left hand side of the given equation is odd and the right hand side is even so there are no solutions in this case. In other words, one of these numbers has to be equal to so we can discuss the following two cases:
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In this case the given equation becomes
Note that has to be odd. In addition, . It can be easily shown that the last equation holds if and only if , for some positive integer . Now, our equation becomes , which can be written into its equivalent form
Since is odd, it can not divide both and . Namely, if it divides both of these numbers then it also divides their difference, which is equal to , and this is clearly impossible. Therefore, we have that either or , which implies that one of the numbers and divides . Since for both of these numbers are greater than , we only need to discuss the case . But in this case , which is obviously satisfied only for and . In summary, is the only solution in this case.
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In this case obviously must be an odd number and the given equation becomes
First, assume that is even. Then , which implies that is divisible by , hence so must be equal to and our equation becomes
From here it follows that , which implies that , for some positive integer . Then the equation can be written into its equivalent form
Observe now that from where it follows that . From here we can conclude that the number is relatively prime to , so it has to divide . Clearly, this is possible only for since for we have . For , we easily find , which yields the solution .
Next, we discuss the case when is odd. In this case,
The last equation implies that must be odd. Namely, if is even then we can not have regardless of the value of . Combined with the condition , we conclude that . The equation can be written as
Observe that
so this number is relatively prime to , which means that it has to divide . But this is impossible, since and imply that
In other words, there are no solutions when and is an odd number.
In summary, and are the only solutions.
Solution 2
Solution:
Analogously as in the first solution we conclude that at least one of the numbers and has to be even. Since these numbers are prime, this implies that at least one of and must be equal to . Therefore it is sufficient to discuss the following two cases:
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In this case the given equation then becomes
From here, it follows that is an odd number. In addition, , which implies that , for some positive integer . Then the above equation can be written in its equivalent form
Since and are three consecutive integers, one of them must be divisible by . Clearly it is not implying that one of the numbers and is divisible by . This implies that so , hence must be equal to and we are left with solving the equation
Note that so from the above equation it follows that must be equal to , which implies that . For we have , so we get as the only solution in this case.
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In this case the given equation becomes
so clearly must be an odd number.
If is odd then we have
The second bracket on the right hand side is sum of odd numbers so it is an odd number. Due to the condition we must have . But then
so we do not have solutions in this case. Therefore it remains to discuss the case when is even.
Let for some positive integer . Then we have the following equation
Note that and are two consecutive even numbers so one of them is divisible by but not by . Looking into the right hand side of the above equation, we conclude that this number must be equal to either or . In other words, either or yielding the following possible values for : . Clearly is impossible, whereas implies that is not divisible by so there are no solutions if . Similarly, for we have that is divisible by so it can not be equal to for any positive integer . Finally, if , we have solution .
In summary, and are the only solutions.