A NEAT LITTLE DIOPHANTINE EQUATION

ANGEL AGERO
THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT EL PASO
APRIL 10, 2017

I recently ran into following neat little problem: Can you find distinct
integers such that,
a2 + b2 + c2 + d2 = abcd?
I like this problem because a friend recently told me there are no
interesting problems accessible to high school students, and that all the
interesting ones require advanced math degrees. This is one of those
problems that crushes that argument. Not only is it accessible to high
school students, but it is a fun and interesting problem to investigate.
I follow with only a small insight in order to leave those curious enough
with plenty to discover, and investigate. . . Have fun!
Here we will investigate one possible approach.

Part 1. Preliminary Approach

Taking the original equation, and completing the square we get,
a2 + b2 + c2 + d2 = abcd
a2 2abcd + (bcd)2 + b2 + c2 + d2 = abcd 2abcd + (bcd)2
(a bcd)2 + b2 + c2 + d2 = abcd + (bcd)2
= (bcd a)bcd
(bcd a)2 + b2 + c2 + d2 = (bcd a)bcd
and
a0 = bcd a
or equivalently,
an = bcd an1

Part 2. Other Possibilities

We chose to complete the square using a, but what about b, c, or d,
after all addition and multiplication are commutative. Well it similarly
follows for those. Rewriting the original equation we get,
x21 + x22 + x23 + x24 = x1 x2 x3 x4
1
 A NEAT LITTLE DIOPHANTINE EQUATION 2

thus,
4
0
Y
xi = xj xi
j=1
j 6= i

Part 3. One Set of Solutions

We see that,
a1 = bcd a0
a2 = bcd bcd + a0
= a0
a3 = bcd a0
which has a period of two. Thus, we cant just endlessly continue
iterating the same respective term, but from part II we can see we
can change it up. One way could be,
(a, b, c, d) (a0 , b, c, d) (a0 , b0 , c, d) (a0 , b0 , c0 , d) (a0 , b0 , c0 , d0 ) (a00 , b0 , c0 , d0 )
and so on, but this blows up rather quickly.

Part 4. Another Solution Set

Another way could be to evaluate,
xn xn1 xn2 xn3
and assigning it to,
xn+1
consequently generating the sequence,
{x1 , x2 , x3 , x4 , ..., xn = xn xn1 xn2 xn3 , ...}
of which any four consecutive terms in the sequence satisfies the
original equation.
For example, using the trivial solution {2, 2, 2, 2} yields,

2
 A NEAT LITTLE DIOPHANTINE EQUATION 3

22

262

34582

199330642

1806032092550706

12449434806576800059248920402

4481765860945171681908664776799089162954814190172722

..
.
and we can go on indefinitely.