DPythagoraan sotoauy By Tala Sada = Wednesday. 31 December 2008, 02:07 PM ‘Years ago, my tain language teachec and my classmates lemming talan used to question me how t could pick up the languace so {act "berdha Zoro un incegnante di metamates,- was my sandard ancuer. That woulé leave ther baffles. what was the relator betvet snd mathamatic:? Ute do my Gacsratas or any cher cuidert, sopeclly cur CAT separa, understand at ates ara ths two dos af tha sara col both const of cymbols connected trough logl= And mors fen xan ‘Samo. the symbole for both ware gradual developed. The matrematicar eular Was resperaiolo {for cur commen, modern-day ues of many famous mathamascal netstane—for skampe, fX0 for 3 function, 9 "or the bace of natural logs, forthe sure root ef =i, for py for summation, Shakespeare ls creed win cinng reas 2700 wards nthe Enola langurge. These sre our symbol, The loge mas lea developed gradualy; the grammar, mathematical procts cal reason ina, logical reasoning, et, form the pots of logic tat bind tose symbols, Therefore, you are logial creature, chances are that you ‘ots nt face dey understanding eer 0 these subse proved ya sre comortabe wih the symbss- Engh voenbulary “The aroaression of thoughts ofa wrisr isnot markesly dfarene fom that of 2 mathematician, hile reading a good paseage one can automaticaly guees the next Daragrath. inthe sama manner, a mathamatan sracceds "om ore thaught te snether na faical mannar, ramoving obstads in his Bath to dseovery and finding Brsners ts the aroblems one ater ancther ‘Some problems have an uncanny ability of being like Hydra’s heads; you finish one of them, other problems grow ut of them stealthily. And this unending trail of problems always starts innocuousiy. Let's see one for example: How many right trangles with integer side lengths have 60 2s one of their legs? ‘Tha problem is simple in nature and easy to solve. Lot a and b be the other leg and the hypotenuse of the right triangle, respectively. Therefore, 60? + a2 = b> 60? = bt = (b-ay(b +a) ‘so the problem really boils down to writing 60* as product of two numbers. Also, since 60* is even a and b woule bbe both odd or both even, Subsequently, b- a and b ~ a would be bath even, Therefore, we nead to find out the ‘number of ways in which 60° can be writton as product of two even numbers. That is easy to find. Remember that factors occurred in pairs? That 60° = 2*% 3° x S*. The number of factors of this number = 5x 3 x 3 = 45. Out of these one factor, 12. 60 is counted out as G0 » 60 cannot be wntren as (b—a)(b + 3) a both the number ‘should be unequal. Now all the other factors occur in pairs. The number of pairs are 4/2 = 22. Out of these pairs, we will have to remove the pairs which have one of the numbers as add. The number of add factors are 3 x 3 = 9. So we remove the pairs having these factors. Now we are left with 22 - 9 = 13 pairs ‘Therefore 60" = (b - a)(b + a) has 13 solutions. Working this way you find that N= 2° pPx qf, where p,q, r, ete. are pames, the number of ways N can 2)(2b = 1J(2e =1)e4=3), be the leg of a right triangle with intager lengths is = ‘There. You solved one problem forever, But is it finished? You are now plagues with the next question How many right triangles with integer side langths have 60 as one of their hypotenuse? Working fast you arrive at the following computation: 0? = 28x 38x stm ot x 38x (at + a) = ot mg x gE 4 at x 3 x 4? = 36? + 484, You try out other cases but you see that this is the only case. So you form a triangle with 60, 36 and 48 which is 12 (2, 4, 5) triplet Is it always a single right triangle in each case? Not really- for you instantly remember that 65? = 607 + 25° = 52% + 39%, Therefore, 65 can he the hypotenuse of at least TWO right triangles with integer sides- (25, 60, 65) which is 5(5, 12, 13) and (39, 52, 65) which is 13(3, 4, 5). ‘So how do you determine if a number N can form the hypotenuse of 2 right triangle with integer sides and if yes then of how many such triangles? You start your search with the primitive triangles, ie. triangles with no common factor among the sides. For example, (3, 4, 5), (5, 12, 13), (8, 15, 17) etc, You notice that other triangles can be said to be extensions of these primitive triangles. What is special about the hypotenuse of 2 primitive triangle? You do some more research and find out that every hypotenuse of a primitive triangle is composed of prime numbers of the form 4n + 1 (for example, 5, 13, 17, 29). Vou further find out that these prime numbers which are of tha form 4n + 1 can be written as the cum of two squares in one way. For example: (28 +1, 13 = 2 + 28), 17 = (42 + 29), 29 = (SP + 2 ‘The prime numbers of the form 4n — 1 cannot he written as stm of two squares. This is easy to see hecause a prime number of the form 4n ~ 1 is odd, therefore it would be sum of an odd square ang an even square. The sum of an odd square and an even square will always be of the form 4n = 1. But why is it that EVERY prime number of the form 4n + 4 can be written as a sum of two squares? ‘The answer lies in 2 small but usaful theorem called the Wilson's theorem which states that for every prime umber p, (p — 1)! + 1 fs divisible by p. Far example, (4! + 1) is divsible by §, (6! + 1) is divisible By 7, and so fon. Through Wilson's theorem it can be proven that ita prime numbor is of the form an + 2, then (2nt}é = 1 is divisible by p.For example, lot's take the prime 29 = 4x7 = 4 Now we know that 26! + 1 is divisible by 29. DAN 2 43 x4 x. 25x 264 27 x 28) ~ 1 is divisible by 29. ‘The remainder when 28 is divided by 29 is -1, the remainder when 27 is divided by 29 is -2, the remainder when 26 is divided by 29 is -3,.. the remainder when 15 is divided by 29 is ~ 1. F(A 2 4340 120 13 0 14 1d 13 I S Gar? + is civisible By 29. 3 x-2 1) + Lis divisible by 29. ‘Therefore, using the same method of negative remainders we can prove for every prime p of the form 4n + 1 that (ant)? + 1 is divisible by p, ‘Now it only ramains to be proven that every factor of (2n1)? + 1 is also the sum of two squares. As (2n1)* = 1 is the sum of two relative prime squares, we can show that avery divisor of a number which can be written as sum of two relatively prime squares can also be written as sum of two squares. Because we know that divisors occur in pairs, ie. we can write the number as a product of pairwise divisors and we can see that (2° + b')(c* + d*) (ac bd)* = (ad = bc}? = (ad - bo)? + (ac = bd)*. Therefore, the product of the sums of two equares can itself be written 3s sum of two squares. Since p is algo one of the divisors of (2n!)* + 4, it can also be written ae sum of two squares So there you have it, For any number to be broken down into sum of two squares, it should consist of at least one prima number of the form 4n = 1. For example, 10 (= 3* + 27) consists of prime number 5, 65 consists of 5 and 13, 65 = (2 + 12)(2? + 3) = (@ = 12) and os? = (22 + 14) (28+ 1) 2 +34) 2? + 5? (2? + 3°) (22 + 3) = 60? + 25% OR aa (22+ 22) (22+ 12) = 3p? + 52? OR = (EA (28 32) (oF 5 38) CE 32) = oa? + act OR 33? + 56° ‘Therefore by trying out the combinations of the primes of the form 4n + 1, we can see that 65 can be the hypotenuse of 4 right-anglad triangles of integer lengths. [And now wa find the answer to our quastion- How do we find the number of right angled triangle with integer lengths whose hypotenuse is 2 given number NZ ‘Answer: If the number N consists of no prime Factors of the form 4n + 4, it cannot be the hypotenuse of any right angled triangle with integer lencths. It can only be a hypotenuse of such right angled triangle if it has at least one prime factor of the form 4n+ 1 IFN = 2%p.*pZ'p:ta1/q2™... where Ps, Ba, Pa, etc. are the primes of the form 4n ~ 1 whereas qi, go, etc. are the primes of the form 4n ~ 12, then the number of right triangles with integer lengths whose hypotenuse is Nis equal to GH=VEC+ME+Y-2, Notice that we consider the powers of only prime factors of the form 4n + 1. ‘Therefore, 1950 = 2 « 3 x S?x 13 will be the hypotenuse of “23+ = 7right triangles of integer lengths. Now that we have killed the last head, problems start raising their heads rapidly Which is the smallest number which can form the side of 10 distinct right triangles with integer side lengths? Which is the smallest number which can form the side (leg or hypotenuse) of 6 right tianglas of integer side lengths? Find three or more right triangles with equal areas ‘Aah well, Lam leaving it to the readers to kill these demons... @ Before finishing this article £ would like te mention the solution te a unique problem. The solution was proposed by Mr. Manoj Mahajan, our senior Quant instructor at Tathagat. That prablem runs as follows: If you throw N Identical dice, what is the total number of distinct outcomes possible? ‘The solution proposed by Mr. Mahajan is very simple but effective. Lot ay be the number of dice which show 2, a2 be the number of dice which show 2, .. ag be the number of dice which show 6. Therefore, the solution is the rrumber of selutions of the equation N ‘And the total number of cistinct outcomes possible are " "Cs,