Friday, 28 August 2026

Exercise (8.1).13

This is a question on Pythagorean triples.

Convert the following squares to sum of two non-zero squares:

(a) $5^2$ (b) $17^2$ (c) $29^2$ (d) $202^2$


(a) It is clear that

$$ 5^2 = 3^2 + 4^2 $$

Many people have this Pythagorean triple memorised from school education.


We will use the Conversion Identity (8.1) for the remaining exercises:

$$ (a^2 + b^2) (c^2 + d^2) = (ac− bd)^2 + (ad + bc)^2 $$


(b) We have

$$ 17^2 = (4^2 + 1^2)(4^2 + 1^2) = (16-1)^2 + (4+4)^2 = 15^2 +8^2 $$


(c) We have

$$ 29^2 = (5^2 + 2^2)(5^2 + 2^2) = (25-4)^2 + (10+10)^2 = 21^2 +20^2 $$


(d) We have $202^2=2^2\times 101^2$, and so

$$ 101^2 = (10^2 + 1^2)(10^2 + 1^2) = (100-1)^2 + (10+10)^2 = 99^2 +20^2 $$

And finally, 

$$ 202^2 = 2^2 \times (99^2 +20^2 ) = 198^2 + 40^2 $$