What are the integer solutions of the equation 2x^2-y^2-y=0

profesorluissp

profesorluissp

Answered question

2022-09-06

What are the integer solutions of the equation 2 x 2 y 2 y = 0
Alice lives on a long street in which all houses are numbered consecutively (1....N). She noticed that the sum of all the house numbers above her house equals all the numbers above her house. Her house number has three digits. What is it? The general formula for the sum of integers m . . . . k , k > m consecutive integers is ( m + k ) ( k m + 1 ) / 2. We form a sequence of consecutive integers 1 . . . . . j 1 , j , j + 1..... k with j, the house number, and k the last number in the sequence. Then from the problem statement one can subtract the sum of the numbers above the house from the sum below the house and obtain the equation k 2 + k 2 j 2 = 0. Using the quadratic formula with j as a parameter one obtains k = ( 1 + 1 + 8 j ) / 2, the “real solution”. We know j varies from 100 to 999. Using MATLAB with rounding I can iterate on j and find the correct answer j, that satisfies the real solution equation, and is the house number = 204 and k the sequence end is 288. The iteration is very fast, and I can compute very large house numbers. My problem is that I know from Wolfram AlphaPro that there is a closed form “integer solution” that solves the equation for j and k as function n with n any integer.

Answer & Explanation

nirosoh9

nirosoh9

Beginner2022-09-07Added 16 answers

Step 1
If x and y are integers such that 2 x 2 y 2 y = 0 then
8 x 2 = 4 y 2 4 y = ( 2 y 1 ) 2 1.
Step 2
So for Y := 2 x and X := 2 y 1 we find that
X 2 2 Y 2 = 1.

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