Skip to main content
OlympiadHQ

Browse · MathNet

Print

The 4th Japanese Junior Mathematical Olympiad

Japan number theory

Problem

Consider the equation (1) Find all pair of integers with which satisfy equation . (2) Find all pair of integers which satisfy equation .
Solution
(1) Substituting into the given equation, we obtain a quadratic equation , and solving this equation normally, we get . Hence the solutions are .

(2) Assume that is a root of the given equation. Substituting the value of , we obtain a quadratic equation of variable . The roots of this equation are Since and are integers, must be an integer, i.e., there exists integer such that . One easily checks that must be or (as a square of an integer is a nonnegative integer). Solving the corresponding quadratic equation for each , we conclude that the answers are .
Final answer
Part (1): (1, -2), (1, -5). Part (2): (-2, -2), (-1, -4), (-1, -1), (1, -5), (1, -2), (2, -4).

Techniques

Techniques: modulo, size analysis, order analysis, inequalitiesQuadratic functions