The integer 2 0 has the property that, if you sum up positive integers up to i for i = 1 , 2 , . . . , 2 0 , there is a step ( at i = 1 4 ) where the sum is exactly half of the total you will have in the end for i = 2 0 :
1 + 2 + ⋯ + 1 4 1 + 2 + ⋯ + 1 9 + 2 0 = 1 0 5 = 2 2 1 0 = 2 1 0 .
What is the next number with this property?
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We want to find positive integers m , n such that 2 × 2 1 m ( m + 1 ) = 2 1 n ( n + 1 ) , which simplifies to read ( 2 n + 1 ) 2 − 2 ( 2 m + 1 ) 2 = − 1 and so we need to look for solutions of Pell's equation. The solutions in positive integers of x 2 − 2 y 2 = − 1 and are given by x n + y n 2 = ( 1 + 2 ) 2 n + 1 n ∈ N ∪ { 0 } We note that x 2 + y 2 2 = ( 1 + 2 ) 5 = 4 1 + 2 9 2 , which gives the n = 2 0 , m = 1 4 solution in the question. The next pair is x 3 + y 3 2 = ( 1 + 2 ) 7 = 2 3 9 + 1 6 9 2 which gives n = 1 1 9 and m = 8 4 as the next solution.
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If the number we are looking for is n and m is the integer for which 2 × ∑ i = 1 m i = m ( m + 1 ) = 2 n ( n + 1 ) , then we can solve the equation for m
m ( m + 1 ) = 2 n ( n + 1 ) ⟹ m = 4 − 2 ± 2 1 + 2 n ( n + 1 )
so we Need the Argument of the square root to be an integer 1 + 2 n ( n + 1 ) = n 2 + ( n + 1 ) 2 = k 2 for some postive integer k . We Need to look for leg-leg Pythagorean triples then. the next one of them is ( 1 1 9 , 1 2 0 , 1 6 9 ) , which makes n = 1 1 9