1991 OIM Problems/Problem 5

Problem

Let $P(x,y) = 2x^2 - 6xy + 5y^2$ . We will say that an integer $a$ is a value of $P$ if there exist integers $b$ and $c$ such that $a=P(b,c)$ .

i. Determine how many elements of {1, 2, 3, ... ,100} are values of $P$ .

ii. Prove that the product of values of $P$ is a value of $P$ .

~translated into English by Tomas Diaz. ~orders@tomasdiaz.com

Part i.

Let $x$ , $y$ , $P$ be integers

$2x^2 - 6xy + 5y^2-P=0$ , then solving for $x$ using the quadratic equation we have:

$x=\frac{3y \pm \sqrt{2P-y^2}}{2}$

Let $K$ be an integer and $K^2=2P-y^2$ . Since $1 \le P \le 100$ , then

Note. I actually competed at this event in Argentina when I was in High School representing Puerto Rico. I have no idea what I did on this one nor how many points they gave me. Probably close to zero on this one.

Alternate solutions are always welcome. If you have a different, elegant solution to this problem, please add it to this page.