Determine the maximum value of , where and are integers satisfying
i.
ii. .
This is an old IMO problem.
This section requires Javascript.
You are seeing this because something didn't load right. We suggest you, (a) try
refreshing the page, (b) enabling javascript if it is disabled on your browser and,
finally, (c)
loading the
non-javascript version of this page
. We're sorry about the hassle.
Experimenting with small values suggests that the solutions of n 2 - m n - m 2 = 1 or -1 are successive Fibonacci numbers.
So suppose n > m is a solution.
This suggests trying m+n, n:
( m + n ) 2 - ( m + n ) n - n 2 = m 2 + m n - n 2 = -( n 2 - m n - m 2 ) = 1 or -1.
So if n > m is a solution, then m+n, n is another solution. Running this forward from 2,1 gives 3,2; 5,3; 8,5; 13,8; 21,13; 34,21; 55,34; 89,55; 144,89; 233,144; 377,233; 610,377; 987,610; 1597,987; 2584,1597.
But how do we know that there are no other solutions????????????????
The trick is to run the recurrence the other way. For suppose n > m is a solution, then try m, n-m:
m 2 - m ( n − m ) - ( n − m ) 2 = m 2 + m n - n 2 = -( n 2 - m n - m 2 ) = 1 or -1,
so that also satisfies the equation. Also if m > 1, then m > n-m (for if not, then n >= 2m, so n(n - m) >= 2 m 2 , so n 2 - n m - m 2 >= m 2 > 1). So given a solution n > m with m > 1, we have a smaller solution m > n-m. This process must eventually terminate, so it must finish at a solution n, 1 with n > 1. But the only such solution is 2, 1. Hence the starting solution must have been in the forward sequence from 2, 1.
Hence the solution to the problem stated is 1 5 9 7 2 + 9 8 7 2 = 3 5 2 4 5 7 8