Concept

Congruum

In number theory, a congruum (plural congrua) is the difference between successive square numbers in an arithmetic progression of three squares. That is, if , , and (for integers , , and ) are three square numbers that are equally spaced apart from each other, then the spacing between them, , is called a congruum. The congruum problem is the problem of finding squares in arithmetic progression and their associated congrua. It can be formalized as a Diophantine equation: find integers , , and such that When this equation is satisfied, both sides of the equation equal the congruum. Fibonacci solved the congruum problem by finding a parameterized formula for generating all congrua, together with their associated arithmetic progressions. According to this formula, each congruum is four times the area of a Pythagorean triangle. Congrua are also closely connected with congruent numbers: every congruum is a congruent number, and every congruent number is a congruum multiplied by the square of a rational number. As an example, the number 96 is a congruum because it is the difference between adjacent squares in the sequence 4, 100, and 196 (the squares of 2, 10, and 14 respectively). The first few congrua are: The congruum problem was originally posed in 1225, as part of a mathematical tournament held by Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor, and answered correctly at that time by Fibonacci, who recorded his work on this problem in his Book of Squares. Fibonacci was already aware that it is impossible for a congruum to itself be a square, but did not give a satisfactory proof of this fact. Geometrically, this means that it is not possible for the pair of legs of a Pythagorean triangle to be the leg and hypotenuse of another Pythagorean triangle. A proof was eventually given by Pierre de Fermat, and the result is now known as Fermat's right triangle theorem. Fermat also conjectured, and Leonhard Euler proved, that there is no sequence of four squares in arithmetic progression.

À propos de ce résultat
Cette page est générée automatiquement et peut contenir des informations qui ne sont pas correctes, complètes, à jour ou pertinentes par rapport à votre recherche. Il en va de même pour toutes les autres pages de ce site. Veillez à vérifier les informations auprès des sources officielles de l'EPFL.

Graph Chatbot

Chattez avec Graph Search

Posez n’importe quelle question sur les cours, conférences, exercices, recherches, actualités, etc. de l’EPFL ou essayez les exemples de questions ci-dessous.

AVERTISSEMENT : Le chatbot Graph n'est pas programmé pour fournir des réponses explicites ou catégoriques à vos questions. Il transforme plutôt vos questions en demandes API qui sont distribuées aux différents services informatiques officiellement administrés par l'EPFL. Son but est uniquement de collecter et de recommander des références pertinentes à des contenus que vous pouvez explorer pour vous aider à répondre à vos questions.