Maths Olympiad Prep

Track / Stage 7 / 148 of 300 #1548 of 1964

Problem 1548

National olympiad second round; IMO P1/P4
Algebra Difficulty 7.3 Find the answer

4. 165 Find the integer solution of the equation x+x+x++x1964 terms =y\underbrace{\sqrt{x+\sqrt{x+\sqrt{x+\cdots+\sqrt{x}}}}}_{1964 \text { terms }}=y.

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translated part:
Find the integer solution of the equation x+x+x++x1964 terms =y\underbrace{\sqrt{x+\sqrt{x+\sqrt{x+\cdots+\sqrt{x}}}}}_{1964 \text { terms }}=y.

4. 165

A number or a short expression. Spacing and $ signs are ignored.

Official solution

[Solution] Let x0,y0x_{0}, y_{0} be integers that satisfy the equation. Then
x0+x0+x0++x01964 times =y0\underbrace{\sqrt{x_{0}+\sqrt{x_{0}+\sqrt{x_{0}+\cdots+\sqrt{x_{0}}}}}}_{1964 \text { times }}=y_{0}

Squaring and rearranging terms, we get
x0+x0++x01963 times =y02x0.\underbrace{\sqrt{x_{0}+\sqrt{x_{0}+\cdots+\sqrt{x_{0}}}}}_{1963 \text { times }}=y_{0}^{2}-x_{0}.

That is, x0+x0++x01963 times =m1\underbrace{\sqrt{x_{0}+\sqrt{x_{0}+\cdots+\sqrt{x_{0}}}}}_{1963 \text { times }}=m_{1},
where m1=y02x0m_{1}=y_{0}^{2}-x_{0}, which is an integer.
Repeating the process of squaring and rearranging terms, we get
x0+x0=m\sqrt{x_{0}+\sqrt{x_{0}}}=m

and x0=k\sqrt{x_{0}}=k, where mm and kk are both integers.
Thus, we have x0=k2x_{0}=k^{2},
which gives
k2+k=m2k(k+1)=m2\begin{array}{l} k^{2}+k=m^{2} \\ k(k+1)=m^{2} \end{array}

The above equation holds only when k=0k=0, hence we get
x0=0,y0=0x_{0}=0, y_{0}=0

Therefore, the original equation has the unique solution {x=0,y=0.\left\{\begin{array}{l}x=0, \\ y=0 .\end{array}\right.

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