Show that the only choice of integers that satisfies the equation
is .
Solution
It suffices to consider non-negative . Assume that there is a non-trivial solution, i.e. at least one of the numbers is positive. We pick such a solution with minimal sum .
Now, must be even since the other two terms are even, so we can write
and divide the new equation across by to get
As before, we conclude that is even and divide the new equation by to get
As before, we conclude that is even and divide the new equation by to get
This is our original equation with replaced by whose sum is half the original sum. This gives a contradiction so there are no solutions.
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