Can we even call this Diophantine?

How many pairs of natural numbers ( x , y ) (x, y) are there for which x + y = x y x + y = xy ?


The answer is 1.

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3 solutions

Daniel Liu
Aug 27, 2014

x + y = x y x y x y = 0 x y x y + 1 = 1 ( x 1 ) ( y 1 ) = 1 x 1 = 1 , y 1 = 1 ( x , y ) = ( 2 , 2 ) \begin{aligned} x+y&=xy\\ xy-x-y&=0\\ xy-x-y+1&=1\\ (x-1)(y-1)&=1\\ x-1=1&, y-1=1\\ (x,y)&= (2,2) \end{aligned}

The other solution is ( 0 , 0 ) (0,0) which doesn't satisfy the "natural numbers" requirement.

By A.M. G.M. Inequality,

x y ( x + y ) 2 4 = x + y xy\leq\frac{(x+y)^2}{4}=x+y

Case 1: ( x + y ) 2 4 < x + y \frac{(x+y)^2}{4}<x+y

By simplifying, we get x + y < 4 x+y<4 , since we can cancel ( x + y ) (x+y) from both sides, as it is a positive natural number.

Only combinations are ( 1 , 1 ) , ( 2 , 1 ) , ( 1 , 2 ) (1,1),(2,1),(1,2) , none of which satisfy the equation.

Case 2: ( x + y ) 2 4 = x + y \frac{(x+y)^2}{4}=x+y

Equality only holds when x = y x=y , in the A.M. G.M. Inequality

Thus, the only combination is ( 2 , 2 ) (2,2) , which satisfies the equation.

Thus, there is only 1 \boxed{1} solution.

Mohammed Imran
Mar 16, 2020

It is given that: x + y = x y x+y=xy taking ( m o d x ) (modx) , we have x y x|y . Taking ( m o d y ) (mody) , we have y x y|x . So, we have x = y x=y . Substituting in our original eqn, we have x = y = 0 x=y=0 and x = y = 2 x=y=2 . Since x , y x,y are natural, x = y = 2 x=y=2 is the only solution. So, the number of solutions is 1 \boxed{1}

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