Find all triples of positive integers such that
Solution
First assume , , . W.l.o.g., let be the greatest among the three numbers. Then . Thus there are no solutions in this case.
It remains to study triples that contain . W.l.o.g., let . The equation reduces to . Assume , . W.l.o.g., , leading to . Thus there are no solutions in this case either. Now assume , and one of the numbers is . W.l.o.g. let . The equation reduces to which can be interpreted as a quadratic equation w.r.t. that leads to . Hence is a perfect square. The only candidates for this are and that give and , respectively, but leads to contradiction (the above formula would give or ). The case gives the solution of the original equation. By symmetry, also , , , , are solutions. If one of the numbers and is then, w.l.o.g., . The equation reduces to , whence . This gives the trivial solution .