The MCS department will be sponsoring problem solving sessions throuout the spring semester. Pizza and problems will be provided. See the MCS Events Calendar for the time and location.
Here is a sample of this weeks problem provided by Dr. Jacob Siehler.
Here’s a quick little question to get your brain working. You know there are lots of integers satisfying the famous Pythagorean equation a^2 + b^2 = c^2. For example, a=3, b=4, c=5 is a famous example, and a=28, b=45, c=53 is a less-famous (but more impressive one) (as long as my arithmetic is correct and I didn’t make any typos).
Question: Is it possible to find three *distinct* integers x, y and z satisfying the “reciprocal Pythagorean equation”
(1/x^2) + (1/y^2) = (1/z^2) ?