A problem by Karan Arora

Level pending

Let P denote the set of all positive integers and

S={(x,y)->P x P : x^{2}-y^{2}=666}

Then S

contains more than two element contains exactly two element is an empty set contains exactly one element

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2 solutions

Otto Bretscher
May 4, 2015

666 2 ( m o d 4 ) 666\equiv2\pmod4 , but x 2 x^2 and y 2 y^2 are each congruent to 0 or 1, so that x 2 y 2 x^2-y^2 is congruent to 0, 1, or 3. Thus there are no solutions.

Tom Engelsman
Feb 5, 2021

We can write the set S S as the factored form ( x y ) ( x + y ) = 666 = 2 1 3 2 3 7 1 (x-y)(x+y) = 666 = 2^{1}3^{2}37^{1} , which can be grouped into the following positive integer divisor pairs:

x + y = 666 , 333 , 222 , 111 , 74 , 37 x+y = 666, 333, 222, 111, 74, 37

x y = 1 , 2 , 3 , 6 , 9 , 18 x-y = 1, 2, 3, 6, 9, 18

which after adding these two subsets together gives:

x = 667 2 , 335 2 , 225 2 , 117 2 , 83 2 , 55 2 x = \frac{667}{2}, \frac{335}{2}, \frac{225}{2}, \frac{117}{2}, \frac{83}{2}, \frac{55}{2}

Thus, x , y P S = x,y \notin \mathbb{P} \Rightarrow \boxed{\mathbb{S} = \emptyset}

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