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Heiro's Wager (Posted on 2010-09-08) Difficulty: 3 of 5

Heiro: Good morning, Archimedes! I bet you 1000 drachma that you can’t answer a simple maths problem!

Archimedes: You’re on.

Heiro: Did you know that every sum of consecutive cubes is also a difference of squares?

Archimedes: Indeed, as everyone knows, each and every sum of consecutive cubes is also a difference of consecutive squares. Was that the question?

Heiro: Not so fast, Archimedes! What if the sum and difference are a prime number?

Archimedes (yawning): Unlikely, since any sum of cubes has at least two factors…

Heiro: Let’s make it a difference of consecutive cubes, then?

Archimedes: There is no reason why such a difference should not be prime, as often as occasion demands. For example, 2^3-1^3 = 7. Have I won yet?

Heiro: I'm just working up to it. What about a difference of consecutive cubes, which is not only prime, but is also a sum of consecutive squares?

Archimedes: Too easy! 61 = 5^3-4^3=5^2+6^2. Can I have my money now?

Heiro: Very well, then, here's my question – just to make it interesting, let’s also stipulate that a side of the larger cube must have at least 4 distinct prime factors – so it must be at least 2*3*5*7 = 210, say? Just how big would that cube have to be?

Archimedes: Easy again! – or is it? Wait a minute…

What is the answer to Heiro’s simple problem?

See The Solution Submitted by broll    
Rating: 4.0000 (1 votes)

Comments: ( Back to comment list | You must be logged in to post comments.)
first four | Comment 2 of 3 |

what we need is
p=a^3-(a-1)^3=b^2+(b-1)^2
for prime p and integers a,b
with the further stipulation that a has at least 4 distinct prime factors. Now ignoring the p part we have
a^3-(a-1)^3=b^2+(b-1)^2
3a^2-3a+1=2b^2-2b+1
3a^2-2b^2-3a+2b=0
now using the quadratic diphantine equation solver here
http://www.alpertron.com.ar/QUAD.HTM
I get the following recursive solution for a,b
a(0)=b(0)=1
a(n)=5a(n-1)+4b(n-1)-4
b(n)=6a(n-1)+5b(n-1)-5

using this I was able to quickly search for the first 5 values for which a has at least 4 distinct prime factors and a^3-(a-1)^3 is prime. They are
3979697923085
39394948099365
34875916035942680547211485
254582633438278427410745855539692079665328638382217015445
2444502419760848501913602005082657558141881819651767188543405

obviously the solutions get very large, very quickly. 


  Posted by Daniel on 2010-09-08 23:01:30
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