Fermat's Four Squares Theorem

MaRDI QIDQ6207916zbMATH OpenFDO

Publication date 22 December 2007

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

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.

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