Fermat's Four Squares Theorem

arXiv0712.3850MaRDI QIDQ6207916FDOQ6207916

Publication date: 22 December 2007

Abstract: It is easy to find a right-angled triangle with integer sides whose area is 6. There is no such triangle with area 5, but there is one with rational sides (a `emph{Pythagorean triangle}'). For historical reasons, integers such as 6 or 5 that are (the squarefree part of) the area of some Pythagorean triangle are called `emph{congruent numbers}'. These numbers actually are interesting for the following reason: Notice the sequence

f r a c 14

,

6 f r a c 14

,

12 f r a c 14

. It is an arithmetic progression with common difference 6, consisting of squares

(f r a c 12)^{2}

,

(f r a c 52)^{2}

,

(f r a c 72)^{2}

of rational numbers. Indeed the common difference of three rational squares in AP is a congruent number and every congruent number is the common difference of three rational squares in arithmetic progression. The triangle given by

9^{2} + 4 0^{2} = 4 1^{2}

has area

180 = 5 c d o t 6^{2}

and the numbers

x - 5

,

x

and

x + 5

all are rational squares if

x = 11 97 / 144

. Recall one obtains all Pythagorean triangles with relatively prime integer sides by taking

x = 4 u v

,

y = p m (4 u^{2} - v^{2})

,

z = 4 u^{2} + v^{2}

where

u

and

v

are integers with

2 u

and

v

relatively prime. Fermat proved that there is no AP of more than three squares of rationals.

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Cubic and quartic Diophantine equations (11D25) Introductory exposition (textbooks, tutorial papers, etc.) pertaining to number theory (11-01)

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