It's easy if you know!

Bonus: Can you generalize it?


The answer is 0.

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2 solutions

Maggie Miller
Aug 17, 2015

Mod 4, any square is either 0 (if the number is even) or 1 (if the number is odd). Then if a 2 + b 2 = c 2 a^2+b^2=c^2 ( a , b , c a,b,c all prime), exactly one or three of them must be even for the equation to hold modulo 4. That is, one or three of the primes is 2. Moreover, c > a , b c>a,b , so c 2 c\neq 2 .

Assume a = 2 a=2 , b , c b,c are odd. Then c 2 = b 2 + 4 c^2=b^2+4 . But c > b c>b , and since b , c b,c are odd, c < b + 1 c<b+1 . Then c 2 ( b + 2 ) 2 = b 2 + 4 b + 4 c^2\ge (b+2)^2=b^2+4b+4 . Thus, b 2 + 4 b 2 + 4 b + 4 b^2+4\ge b^2+4b+4 , implying b 0 b\le 0 and contradicting b b being prime.

Thus, there are no Pythagorean triplets consisting of three prime numbers, so the answer is 0 \boxed{0} (regardless of the given range for c c ).

Great analysis.

Shib Shankar Sikder - 5 years, 10 months ago
Curtis Clement
Aug 24, 2015

Primitive Pythagorean triples satisfy the following conditions: ( a , b , c ) = ( 2 x y , x 2 y 2 , x 2 + y 2 ) y > x > 0 \ (a,b,c) = (2xy, \ ~ \ x^2 -y^2, \ ~ \ x^2 +y^2) \ ~ \forall y > x > 0 f r o m ( 2 x y ) 2 + ( x 2 y 2 ) 2 = ( x 2 + y 2 ) 2 \ from \ (2xy)^2 +(x^2 -y^2)^2 = (x^2 +y^2)^2 Now clearly 2 x y \ 2xy is even so at least one of a and b are even and hence not prime. Also, note that 2 x y = 2 x = y = 1 \ 2xy = 2 \implies x=y = 1 but this contradicts x < y and the fact that they are coprime natural numbers.

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