How to find all natural $x$ for that $x^2 + (x+1)^2$ is a perfect square?
Find all $x$ for that $x^2 + (x+1)^2$ is a square
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number-theory
1 Answers
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Suppose $x^2 + (x+1)^2 = y^2$. We can rewrite it as $(2x+1)^2 + 1 = 2y^2$ or $(2x+1)^2 - 2y^2 = -1$.
If $z=2x+1$ then we have $z^2 - 2y^2 = -1$. This is Pell's equation. Wikipedia article shows how to solve it.
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2In particular, because the smallest solution of z²-2y²=-1 is (1,1), all solutions are given by writing (1+√2)^n = z + y√2, for odd n. For instance (1+√2)³ = (7+5√2). So solutions (z,y) are (1,1), (7,5), (41,29), (239,169), (1393,985) and so on, corresponding to x = 0, 3, 20, 119, 696, … – 2010-07-29