Andy and Bobby are playing a game with their ages. Their ages are less than 100. If they concatenate their ages, they'll have a 4-digit perfect square number. Twenty three years later, if they rewrite their ages, they'll have another 4-digit perfect square. Assuming that they are at different ages, What is the sum of their ages?
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Let Andy's age be a b and Bobby's age be c d . If we write their ages consecutively, we have a b c d = m 2 . Twenty three years from now, Andy's age will be a b + 2 3 and Bobby's age be c d + 2 3 . If we rewrite their ages, we have a b c d + 2 3 2 3 = n 2 .
We have m 2 + 2 3 2 3 = n 2 ⇒ n 2 − m 2 = 2 3 2 3
Factorize, we have ( n + m ) ( n − m ) = 1 0 1 × 2 3 . ⇒ We know that n + m > n − m
We have n + m = 1 0 1 and n − m = 2 3 . Solving, we have n = 6 2 and m = 3 9 .
We note that m 2 1 5 2 1 = = a b c d a b c d .
Observing, we have a b = 1 5 and c d = 2 1 .
The sum of their ages is 3 6 .