Find the number of quadruples of integers with absolute value at most 5 such that
Solution
Let , and . Then and since it follows that or . Now implies . Now gives . Then for equality to hold . This is equivalent to , which includes the previous case. It suffices to count the number of triples that satisfy the equation. When , either or is zero, which gives triples. When , we have and have the same sign, for triples. When , we have or their negatives, for triples. When , we have and have the same sign, for triples. So in total there are solutions.
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