find them

Find all the pairs of positive numbers such that the last
digit of their sum is 3, their diference is a primer number and
their product is a perfect square.

(a previous olympiad question,interesting one)

5 Answers

341
Hari Shankar ·

(9,4) is the unique solution

11
Devil ·

If the numbers be a,b, with ab=c2 and a-b=p, then we have the following.....

a=\frac{(p+1)^2}{4}

b=\frac{(p-1)^2}{4}

c=\frac{p^2-1}{4}

Also 2p^2+2=10k+2 \Rightarrow p^2=5k.

From which we have p=5.

The unique triplet (a,b,c) follows.

341
Hari Shankar ·

You know, u've got to give a lil bit of a roadmap as to why you conclude the relationship between a, b and p is as you have given.

11
Devil ·

I thought that part was trivial.

Easy to see that (a,b)=1 or p....if (a,b)=p then we have k(k+1) as a perfect square, a contradiction.

Which means (a,b)=1, which also means a=m2 & b=n2.....

Now plugging in the fact that a-b=p, we have our desired relationship......

341
Hari Shankar ·

well you could think this way: by giving a detailed solution, you could be helping someone who has never known this line of argument before.

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