Linear Diophantine equation with three variables and a condition Let me start by saying that I'm ne

Jamiya Weber

Jamiya Weber

Answered question

2022-06-08

Linear Diophantine equation with three variables and a condition
Let me start by saying that I'm new to Diophantine equations and my method certainly will not be the best possible one. I'm aware that a faster method of solving this particular case exists, but I want to know if what I did was correct and how I can finish the exercise.
39 x + 55 y + 70 z = 3274
x + y + z = 69
x 0 , y 0 , z 0
What I tried:
39 x + 55 y = 3274 70 z
The GCD for 39 and 55 is one, so we can set aside z = t to be a parameter, where t is an integer. We proceed to solve this as a Diophantine equation with two variables.
I now need to use the extended Euclidean algorithm to express 1 as a linear combination of 39 and 55.
I got that 1 = 24 39 17 55
Now, the solution would be
x = 78576 1680 t + 55 s
y = 55658 + 1190 t 39 s
z = t
where t and s are integers. I got this from the formula that x = λ 1 b + s a 2 and y = λ 2 b s a 1 .
Where λ 1 and λ 2 are the coefficients in the Euclidean algorithm, b is 3274 70 t and a 1 and a 2 are 39 and 55, respectively.
It's obvious that t 0, and if I put that x and y are greater than zero, I get that
s 1680 t 78576 55 and s 55658 + 1190 t 39 which makes 1680 t 78576 55 55658 + 1190 t 39 which is t 46.77.
I now have the whole range of integers [0,46] which of course isn't feasible to do (as I'd have to plug them into the inequalities for s and get even more cases.
How do I proceed from here? What do I do? I still have the condition x + y + z = 69 but I feel like I'm missing something. Can it be really done this way, except that it's an unimaginably hefty job of testing each case?

Answer & Explanation

scipionhi

scipionhi

Beginner2022-06-09Added 25 answers

Step 1
The condition x + y + z = 69 tells you that
(1) z = 69 x y .
The condition that z 0 is then equivalent to x + y 69.
Plug (1) into your first equation to get 3274 = 39 x + 55 y + 70 ( 69 x y ) = 31 x 15 y + 4830 ,, or equivalently 31 x + 15 y = 1556 ,, with the conditions that x , y 0 and x + y 69.
Step 2
Next note that reducing modulo 15 and 31 shows that
x 11 ( mod 15 ) , y 19 ( mod 31 ) ,
so y { 19 , 50 } and x { 11 , 26 , 41 }. A quick check then shows that ( x , y ) = ( 41 , 19 ) is the unique solution.
Dania Mueller

Dania Mueller

Beginner2022-06-10Added 6 answers

Step 1
Since x + y + z = 69,
39 x + 39 y + 39 z = 2691.
Then 39 x + 55 y + 70 z ( 39 x + 39 y + 39 z ) = 3274 2691 = 583
One ends up with 16 y + 31 z = 583 whose general solution is well known by the theory of linear diophantine equations in two variables, and much more restricted by the positive requirement.
Step 2
In this case, look at the equation mod 31 to make a further reduction to 16 y 25 ( mod 31 ) which has the unique solution y = 19 in the least residue system and note that outside of that there are no more as any larger solution gives 16 y > 583.
The unique solution is forced from y = 19 and is (41, 19, 9).

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