Saturday, 22 November 2025

Exercise (3.3).19

Solve the linear Diophantine equation $15x− 6y= 3$. 

Using your solutions to this equation, solve $15x ≡ 3 \pmod 6$.


We start with

$$ 15x -6y  = 3 $$

By Proposition 1.17, this has integer solutions if $g=\gcd(15, -6) = 3$ divides 3, which it does.

By inspection, a solution is $x=1, y=2$. So the general solution is, by Proposition 1.18,

$$ x = 1 -2t , \quad y =2 - 5t $$

for some integer $t$.


The linear congruence $15x \equiv 3 \pmod 6$ is equivalent to 

$$ 15x-3 = 6y $$

for some integer $y$.

We've shown that $x=1-2t$ for some integer $t$. This is equivalent to

$$ x \equiv 1 \pmod 2$$

This is equivalent to a set of $g=3$ solutions in modulo 6.

$x \equiv 1 \pmod 6$

$x \equiv 3 \pmod 6$

$x \equiv 5 \pmod 6$

(All of these are congruent to 1 in modulo 2).




Alternative Solution

The linear congruence $15x \equiv 3 \pmod 6$ is equivalent to 

$$ 15x-3 = 6y $$

for some integer $y$.

We've shown that $x=1-2t$ for some integer $t$. That is

$$ x \equiv 1-2t \pmod 6 $$

where $t=0, 1, 2$ because there are $g=3$ incongruent solutions. The solution are therefore 

$x \equiv 1 \pmod 6$

$x \equiv -1 \pmod 6$

$x \equiv -3 \pmod 6$

Substituting with the equivalent non-negative residues

$x \equiv 1 \pmod 6$

$x \equiv 3 \pmod 6$

$x \equiv 5 \pmod 6$