How to solve $937=x^2+24x+24y+y^2$ where x and y are integers.

124 Views Asked by At

I am trying to solve the equation $937=x^2+24x+24y+y^2$, where x and y are integers. What I've tried is changing the right side of the equation to $$(x+y)^2-2xy+24x+24y$$ $$(x+y)^2-2(x+y)(-12)+xy$$ $$(x+y)((x+y)++24+x+y)$$ $$2(x+y)(x+12+y)$$

and then trying to find integers that fit into the equation but it doesn't seem like the most efficient or proper way to solve this equation. Any suggestions?

1

There are 1 best solutions below

4
On BEST ANSWER

Complete the square in each of the $x$ and $y$ quadratics:

$$\begin{align} (x^2+24x+144)+(y^2+24y+144)=937+288&=1225 \\ (x+12)^2+(y+12)^2=35^2 \end{align}$$

So we are seeking Pythagorean triples where the triangle has two sides of length $x+12,y+12$ and a hypotenuse of $35$. Irreducible Pythagorean triples are of the form:

$$(m^2-n^2,2mn,m^2+n^2)$$

The only primitive triples relevant here are those with $m^2+n^2\in\{5,7,35\}$ because these are all the factors of $35$ larger than one, and so are the only ones that can be scaled up to obtain a triangle with hypotenuse $35$.

The only one with integer solutions is $m^2+n^2=5 \implies m=2,n=1$ ($7$ and $35$ are of the form $4k+3$ so cannot be a sum of two integer squares) from which we have the primitive triple $(3,4,5)$. So

$$\begin{align} &3^2+4^2=5^2 \\ &\implies 21^2+28^2=35^2 \\ &\implies (\pm21)^2+(\pm28)^2=35^2 \\ &\implies (x+12,y+12)\in\{(21,28),(-21,28),(21,-28),(-21,-28),(28,21),(-28,21),(28,-21),(-28,-21)\} \\ &\implies (x,y)\in\{(9,16),(-33,16),(9,-40),(-33,-40),(16,9),(-40,9),(16,-33),(-40,-33)\} \end{align}$$


[Update]

As $\color{blue}{\text{coffeemath}}$ has pointed out, there are also trivial solutions (not Pythagorean triples) to the original equation, i.e.

$$(x+12,y+12)\in\{(\pm35,0),(0,\pm35)\}$$

whence

$$(x,y)\in\{(-47,-12),(23,-12),(-12,-47),(-12,23)\}$$

are also solutions.