MA 312M: Elementary Number Theory and Algebra

Instructor: Anupam Saikia

Practice Problems: GCD, Division Algorithm, Fundamental Theorem of Arithmetic

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1. Find all primes p such that p2 + 8 is also a prime.

2. Show that there are infinitely many primes of the form 4k + 3.

3. Show that there are infinitely many natural numbers that cannot be expressed as the
difference of two perfect squares.

4. If 2n + 1 and 3n + 1 are both perfect squares, then show that 40 divides n.

15n + 13
5. Show that for any integer n, the rational number is irreducible (i.e., the nu-
9n + 8
merator and the denominator are co-prime).

6. Show that gcd(2002 + 2, 20022 + 2, 20023 + 2, . . .) = 6.

7. The sequence of Fibonacci numbers is defined as

a0 = 1, a2 = 1, an = an−1 + an−2 for n ≥ 2.

Show that

(a) Any two consecutive Fibonacci numbers are coprime.

(b) Show that am+n = am+1 an + am an−1 .
(c) Show that if m | n then am | an .
(d) Show that gcd(am , an ) = agcd(m,n) .

8. Show that there are infinitely many positive integers A such that 2A is a square, 3A is a
cube and 5A is a fifth power.

9. Show that there are no solutions in natural numbers for the equation

a4 + b4 + c4 − 2a2 b2 − 2b2 c2 − 2c2 a2 = 24.

10. Let a, b, and c be three positive integers such that gcd(a, b, c) = 1 and a2 + b2 = c2 .

(a) Show that {a, b} = {p2 − q 2 , 2pq} and c = p2 + q 2 for some relatively prime integers
p and q (i.e., one of a, b is even which can be taken as 2pq and the other as p2 − q 2 ).
(b) Then show that x4 + y 4 = z 4 has no solution in integers unless xyz = 0.

11. If a, b, c are three natural numbers with gcd(a, b, c) = 1 such that

1 1 1
+ = ,
a b c
then show that a + b is a perfect square.

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