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arXiv · 1510.01645

A problem in Pythagorean Arithmetic

Victor Pambuccian
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Abstract

Problem 2 at the 56th International Mathematical Olympiad (2015) asks for all triples (a,b,c) of positive integers for which ab-c, bc-a, and ca-b are all powers of 2. We show that this problem requires only a primitive form of arithmetic, going back to the Pythagoreans, which is the arithmetic of the even and the odd.

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Victor Pambuccian. 2015-10-04. A problem in Pythagorean Arithmetic. https://doi.org/10.1215/00294527-2017-0028

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