Class - x

Born: about 200 AD Died: about 284 AD

Diophantus of Alexandria
Diophantus was an Alexandrian Greek mathematician, born somewhere
between 200 and 214 BC. Alexandria was the center of Greek culture and
knowledge and Diophantus belonged to the Silver Age of Alexandria. His life
story is not known in detail however we do have some dates acquired from a
mathematical puzzle known as Diophantuss Riddle. It says his boyhood
lasted 1/6
th
of his life; he married after 1/7
th
more; his beared grew after
1/12
th
more, his son was born 5 years later; the son lived to half his
fathers age, and the father died 4 years after the son.
So he got married when he was 26, had a son who lived for 42 years and Diophantuss
age which according to the riddle was 84 when he died. While his personal life remains
secluded his works in mathematics is recorded in Arithmetika which originally had
thirteen books out of which six exist. The information from these books tell us that
Diophantus studied from Babylonian teachers as his works are inspired from Greek and
Babylonian observes. Diophantus, often known as the father of algebra , is best known
for his Arithmetica, a work on the solution of algebric equations and on the theory of
numbers. Some of his equations resulted in more than one answer possibility. They are
now called Diophantine or Indeterminate. It was none other than Diophantus who
started the use of a symbol to specify the unidentified quantities in his equations.
A Diophantine equation in the form
ax+by=c is known as a linear combination.
If two relatively prime integers a and b are
written in this form with c=1, the equation
will have an infinite number of solutions.
More generally, there will always be an
infinite number of solutions when gcd(a,b)
divides c . If gcd(a,b) | c, then there are
no solutions to the equation.
If x
0,
y
0
is any particular solution of this equation, then
all other solutions are given by
x = x
0
+ (b/d) t y = y
0
-

(a/d)t
where t is an arbitrary integer.
Proof. To establish the theorem, let us suppose that a
solution x
0
, y
0
of the given equation is

known. If x, y is
any other solution, then ax
0
+ by
0
= c = ax + by
which is equivalent to
a(x - x
0
) = b(y
0
- y)


The situation is now this: r | s(y
0
- y), with gcd(r, s) = 1.
Using Euclidean algorithm, it must be the case that r | (y
0
- y);
or, in other words, (y
0
- y) = rt for some integer t. Substituting,
we obtain x - x
0
= st
This leads us to the formulas
x = x
0
+ st = x
0
+ (b/d) t


y = y
0
rt = y
0
-

(a/d) t
Thus there are infinite number of solutions of the given
equation, one for each value of t.

Use the Euclidean Algorithm to find
d = gcd(172, 20).



172 = 8 . 20 + 12
20 = 1 . 12 + 8
12 = 1 . 8 + 4
4 = 1 . 4 + 0
So, the last non zero remainder is 4
and (172, 20) = 4 and 4|1000. Hence
there are many solutions.

Reverse by step

4 = 12 - 1.8
4 = 12 (20 1 . 12)
4 = 2 . 12 20
4 = 2(172 8 . 20) 20
4 = 2 . 172 17 . 20

Here, x
0
*= 2 and y
0
*=(-)17

d = gcd(172, 20) = 4
c = 1000

so 1000 = 4.250




We have found
x
0
* = 2 and y
0
* = (-)17
x
0
=2 . 250 = 500 & y
0
= -17 . 250
= - 4250


So a particular solution is
x
o
500 and y
o
- 4250.
Then all solutions are x x
o
+ (b/d)t
and y y
o
(a/d)t where t is an
integer.

From the equation 172x + 20y 1000,
we see that a 172 and b 20.
From our previous work, x
o
500,
y
o
- 4250, and d 4.

So the solutions, in integers, are
x 500 + 5t and y - 4250 43t
where t ranges over the integers.

So we need to find those values of t for which
x 500 + 5t > 0 and y - 4250 43t > 0.
t > - 100. t < - 98.83
Since t must be an integer, t - 99.
So - 100 < t - 99


so there is only one (+)ve
solution to the equation

x = 500 + 5.(-99) = 5 y = - 4250 43 .(-99) = 7
Linear Diophantine
Equation problem:-

Q1) How many beetles and
spiders are in a box containing
46 legs?