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Number theory Difficulty 6.6 National olympiad Prove it

Four positive integers x,y,zx, y, z, and tt satisfy the relations xyzt=x+y=z+t x y-z t=x+y=z+t Is it possible that both xyx y and ztz t are perfect squares? (Russia)

Solution

Assuming indirectly that xy=a2x y=a^{2} and zt=c2z t=c^{2} with a,c>0a, c>0. Suppose that the number x+y=z+tx+y=z+t is odd. Then xx and yy have opposite parity, as well as zz and tt. This means that both xyx y and ztz t are even, as well as xyzt=x+yx y-z t=x+y; a contradiction. Thus, x+yx+y is even, so the number s=x+y2=z+t2s=\frac{x+y}{2}=\frac{z+t}{2} is a positive integer. Next, we set b=xy2,d=zt2b=\frac{|x-y|}{2}, d=\frac{|z-t|}{2}. Now the problem conditions yield
s2=a2+b2=c2+d2 s^{2}=a^{2}+b^{2}=c^{2}+d^{2}
and
2s=a2c2=d2b2 2 s=a^{2}-c^{2}=d^{2}-b^{2}
(the last equality in (2) follows from (1)). We readily get from (2) that a,d>0a, d>0. In the sequel we will use only the relations (1) and (2), along with the fact that a,d,sa, d, s are positive integers, while bb and cc are nonnegative integers, at most one of which may be zero. Since both relations are symmetric with respect to the simultaneous swappings ada \leftrightarrow d and bcb \leftrightarrow c, we assume, without loss of generality, that bcb \geqslant c (and hence b>0b>0). Therefore, d2=2s+b2>c2d^{2}=2 s+b^{2}>c^{2}, whence
d2>c2+d22=s22 d^{2}>\frac{c^{2}+d^{2}}{2}=\frac{s^{2}}{2}
On the other hand, since d2b2d^{2}-b^{2} is even by (2), the numbers bb and dd have the same parity, so 0000 imply b=c=0b=c=0, which is impossible.

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Source: NuminaMath-1.5, licensed Apache-2.0. Statement and solution reproduced as published; topic and difficulty added by this site.