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jmc

algebra senior

Problem

Chris labels every lattice point in the coordinate plane with the square of the distance from the point to the origin (a lattice point is a point such that both of its coordinates are integers). How many times does he label a point with the number ?
Solution
Consider the point . Then, he labels the point with the number so it follows that . From here, some casework needs to be done to find the number of pairs that satisfy . We note that , and so can only be equal to . Of these, only produce integer solutions for .

If , then , and any of the four combinations work. Similarly, if , there are four feasible distinct combinations.

If , then , but then there is only one possible value for , and so there are only two combinations that work: and . Similarly, if , there are two feasible distinct combinations. In total, there are possible pairs of integer coordinates that are labeled with .
Final answer
12