Thread: Question from the ICAS Maths competition

x and y must be intergers
how many possible solutions are there?

i have got y=5 x=+/-2 and y=2 x=+/-11

which are 4 different possibilities now

the question is: is it any other possibilities if y is a negative interger?
if not, how do you prove it?

Originally Posted by chessweicong

x and y must be intergers
how many possible solutions are there?

i have got y=5 x=+/-2 and y=2 x=+/-11

which are 4 different possibilities now

the question is: is it any other possibilities if y is a negative interger?
if not, how do you prove it?

Using thoughtless brute force methods, y=-16, x=+/-65. Can't contribute to the proof aspect (that there do/do not exist more solutions) at this time.

Seeing it's from a math competition, there should be a better way. Try using modular arithmetic. For example you should check for solutions modulo 3.