Integers are such that
How many different solutions are there?
Note: Reordering the sequence of each solution doesn't count as another solution.
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2 x 4 − 4 y 4 + 8 z 4 = t 4
Assume a solution to this is ( x 0 , y 0 , z 0 , t 0 ). Therefore, we have:
2 x 0 4 − 4 y 0 4 + 8 z 0 4 = t 0 4 (1)
⇔ 2 ( x 0 4 − 2 y 0 4 + 4 z 0 4 ) = t 0 4
We can clearly see that t 4 divides 2, so t 0 divides 2. Let t 0 = 2 t 1 ( t 1 is an integer)
2 ( x 0 4 − 2 y 0 4 + 4 z 0 4 ) = ( 2 t 1 ) 4 = 1 6 t 1 4
⇔ x 0 4 − 2 y 0 4 + 4 z 0 4 = 8 t 1 4
It's obvious that x 0 4 divides 2, so x divides 2. Let x 0 = 2 x 1 ( x 1 is an integer)
( 2 x 1 ) 4 − 2 y 0 4 + 4 z 0 4 = 8 t 1 4 ⇔ 1 6 x 1 4 − 2 y 0 4 + 4 z 0 4 = 8 t 1 4
⇔ 8 x 1 4 − y 0 4 + 2 z 0 4 = 4 t 1 4 (Divide each side by 2)
It's clear that y 0 4 divides 2, so y 0 divides 2. Let y 0 = 2 y 1 ( y 1 is an integer).
8 x 1 4 − ( 2 y 1 ) 4 + 2 z 0 4 = 4 t 1 4 ⇔ 8 x 1 4 − 1 6 y 1 4 + 2 z 0 4 = 4 t 1 4
⇔ 4 x 1 4 − 8 y 1 4 + z 0 4 = 2 t 1 4 (Divide each side by 2)
Again, z 0 4 divides 2, so z 0 divides 2. Let z 0 = 2 z 1 ( z 1 is an integer).
4 x 1 4 − 8 y 1 4 + ( 2 z 1 ) 4 = 2 t 1 4 ⇔ 4 x 1 4 − 8 y 1 4 + 1 6 z 1 4 = 2 t 1 4
⇔ 2 x 1 4 − 4 y 1 4 + 8 z 1 4 = t 1 4 (Divide each side by 2) (2).
Comparing (1) and (2), we can conclude that ( x 1 , y 1 , z 1 , t 1 ) = ( 2 x 0 , 2 y 0 , 2 z 0 , 2 t 0 ) is another solution.
However, if we keep letting x n = 2 x n + 1 , y n = 2 y n + 1 , z n = 2 z n + 1 , t n = 2 t n + 1 ( n is a natural number), we can always conclude that ( x n + 1 , y n + 1 , z n + 1 , t n + 1 ) = ( 2 x n , 2 y n , 2 z n , 2 t n ) = ( 2 n x 0 , 2 n y 0 , 2 n z 0 , 2 n t 0 ) is another solution for the equation.
We can see that x 0 , y 0 , z 0 , t 0 divides 2 n for every natural number n . The only solution satisfying this is ( 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 ) (since 0 is the only number that divides an infinite series of numbers).
Therefore, the equation has only 1 solution, that is ( 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 ) .