In Honour of Helmut Hasse.

Number Theory Level pending

Young Albert was given a list of positive integers, given as below by his teacher, Mr Bert.

2002 , 2003 , 2011 , 2012 , . . . . , 2101 , 2102 2002, 2003, 2011, 2012, .... , 2101, 2102

Mr Bert challenged Albert to find out how many integers in the list can be represented as the sum of 3 cubes.

After a long think, Albert gave up and threw the list into a trash can.

How many integers in that list can be represented as the sum of 3 cubes, i.e. x 3 + y 3 + z 3 { x }^{ 3 }+{ y }^{ 3 }+{ z }^{ 3 } , where x x , y y and z z are all integers?

Note : x 3 { x }^{ 3 } , y 3 { y }^{ 3 } and z 3 { z }^{ 3 } doesn't always have to be a positive integer, it can also be a negative integer as well.


The answer is 0.

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1 solution

Kok Hao
Jan 13, 2018

It is well known that if n ± 4 m o d 9 n \equiv \pm 4 \bmod 9 , it cannot be represented as the sum of 3 cubes.

Basically, if n = 9 k + 4 n=9k+4 or n = 9 k + 5 n=9k+5 , where k k is an integer, n n cannot be represented as the sum of 3 cubes.

Since all the numbers in the list can be represented in the form 9 k + 4 9k+4 or 9 k + 5 9k+5 , all of them cannot be represented as the sum of 3 cubes.

Proof that all integers in the form of 9 k + 4 9k+4 or 9 k + 5 9k+5 cannot be represented as the sum of 3 cubes.

Consider the remainders of x 3 x^3 , y 3 y^3 and z 3 z^3 when divided by 9.

x 3 ( 1 , 8 , 0 ) m o d 9 y 3 ( 1 , 8 , 0 ) m o d 9 z 3 ( 1 , 8 , 0 ) m o d 9 \begin{array} { r l } x^3 \equiv (1,8,0) \bmod 9 \\ y^3 \equiv (1,8,0) \bmod 9 \\ z^3 \equiv (1,8,0) \bmod 9 \\ \end{array}

Now, choose one remainder from x 3 x^3 , y 3 y^3 and z 3 z^3 and add them together.

For example, someone could choose the remainder of 1 from x 3 x^3 , the remainder of 8 from y 3 y^3 and the remainder of 8 from z 3 z^3 .

Adding the remainders together would get 1 + 8 + 8 = 17 1+8+8=17 , which is equal to 8 m o d 9 8 \bmod 9 .

Now, consider all the possible sums of remainders that you can get.

It turns out that x 3 + y 3 + z 3 0 , 1 , 2 , 3 , 6 , 7 , 8 m o d 9 { x }^{ 3 }+{ y }^{ 3 }+{ z }^{ 3 }\equiv \quad 0,1,2,3,6,7,8\quad mod\quad 9 .

It looks like that 4 4 and 5 5 are not in the list, indicating that the sum of 3 cubes can never give a remainder of 4 4 or 5 5 , thus completing the proof.

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