Monday, 14 September 2026

Exercise (8.2).10

Show that expressing a positive integer into sum of four squares is not unique.


Consider the positive integer 169. We have

$$ 169 = 1^2 + 2^2 + 8^2 + 10^2 $$

$$ 169 = 2^2 + 4^2 + 7^2 + 10^2 $$

$$ 169 = 4^2 + 4^2 + 4^2 + 11^2 $$

$$ 169 = 4^2 + 5^2 + 8^2 + 8^2 $$

$$ 169 = 4^2 + 6^2 + 6^2 + 9^2 $$


And so we have shown that expressing a positive integer into a sum of four squares is not unique by providing a counter-example.