Maths Olympiad Prep

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Number theory Difficulty 6.3 National olympiad Prove it

11. Prove that the indeterminate equation
x44y4=z2x^{4}-4 y^{4}=z^{2}

has no positive integer solutions.

Solution

11. Proof: Squaring both sides of the equation, we get
z4=(x44y4)2=x88x4y4+16y8=(x8+8x4y4+16y8)16x4y4=(x4+4y4)2(2xy)4\begin{aligned} z^{4}= & \left(x^{4}-4 y^{4}\right)^{2} \\ & =x^{8}-8 x^{4} y^{4}+16 y^{8} \\ & =\left(x^{8}+8 x^{4} y^{4}+16 y^{8}\right)-16 x^{4} y^{4} \\ & =\left(x^{4}+4 y^{4}\right)^{2}-(2 x y)^{4} \end{aligned}

Thus,
(2xy)4+z4=(x4+4y4)2(2 x y)^{4}+z^{4}=\left(x^{4}+4 y^{4}\right)^{2}

From this, we can see: If x0,y0,z0 x_{0}, y_{0}, z_{0} is a positive integer solution to the equation x44y4=z2 x^{4}-4 y^{4}=z^{2} , then 2x0y0,z0,x04+4y04 2 x_{0} y_{0}, z_{0}, x_{0}^{4}+4 y_{0}^{4} is a positive integer solution to the equation x4+y4=z2 x^{4}+y^{4}=z^{2} . From the proof of Lemma 3, we already know that x4+y4=z2 x^{4}+y^{4}=z^{2} has no positive integer solutions, so x44y4=z2 x^{4}-4 y^{4}=z^{2} cannot have positive integer solutions.

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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.