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Pythagorean Triples

This document summarizes several methods for generating Pythagorean triples, including an 1844 method using the sequence of mixed fractions 1/13, 2/25, 3/37, etc. It shows that converting terms of this sequence to improper fractions gives the sides of Pythagorean triples. Exercises are provided to explore these methods and a modern theorem that can generate all primitive Pythagorean triples.

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494 views3 pages

Pythagorean Triples

This document summarizes several methods for generating Pythagorean triples, including an 1844 method using the sequence of mixed fractions 1/13, 2/25, 3/37, etc. It shows that converting terms of this sequence to improper fractions gives the sides of Pythagorean triples. Exercises are provided to explore these methods and a modern theorem that can generate all primitive Pythagorean triples.

Uploaded by

tlcpineda
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Exercises:

2. Find the primitive Pythagorean triples that arise from applying this method
to the odd squares 25 and 49.

3. Explain how this method shows that there are infinitely many primitive
Pythagorean triples.

An 1844 edition of a book originally by Jacques Ozanam, [O 1844] republished


by Montucla, and then translated from French by one “Dr. Hutton,” then revised by
Edward Riddle gives another way to generate infinitely many Pythagorean triples:

This is surprising, and nobody we’ve asked has ever seen it before. It says to start
with the sequence of mixed fractions:

1 13 , 2 25 , 337 , 494 , 5115 , etc. , the general term of which is n + 2nn+1

Then take any term of this and convert it to an “improper fraction” in lowest
terms. The numerator and denominator of this improper fraction will be two sides of a
Pythagorean triple. The hypotenuse can be found using the Pythagorean theorem.

If, for example, we take the fifth term, 5 115 , we get the improper fraction 5 115 = 60
11
.
According to the rule, 60 and 11 are two sides of a Pythagorean triple, and the
hypotenuse will be 602 + 112 = 3600 + 121 = 3721 = 61. Hence, 60, 11 and 61 form
a Pythagorean triple.

1/22/2007 Infinitely many Pythagorean triples 4


Exercises:

4. Show why this works.

5. Find a Pythagorean triple that this method does not generate.

6. The 1844 edition goes on to say, “The progression 1 78 , 2 11


12
, 3 15
16
, 4 19
20
, &c., is of
the same kind as the preceding.” Check that the first three triples, (8, 15, 17), (12,
35, 37) and (16, 63, 65) are all Pythagorean.

Find the general term of the progression.

Show why this works.

(Hard) Find another similar progression with the same properties.

7. Different editions of Ozanam’s book are quite different. The French edition of
1778 does not have the sequence of fractions, but it does have the claim at the
right. It translates as:

“If two numbers are such that their


squares, added together, makes a
square, then the product of these
two numbers is divisible by six.”

Prove this assertion.

We mentioned above that there is a fast and powerful way to generate all
Pythagorean triples. It is the way found in most modern number theory texts. Because
most texts tend to take a straight line to their goals, they seldom have the time step off the
beaten path. As a result, almost nothing of what we’ve described above is in any modern
number theory text. Instead, we find the following theorem:

Theorem: Let m and n be distinct positive integers, with m > n,


1. Then the three numbers, 2mn, m2 – n2 and m2 + n2 form a Pythagorean
triple.
2. If m and n are relatively prime, and if one is odd and the other is even,
then the resulting Pythagorean triple is primitive.
3. Every primitive Pythagorean triple can be found in this manner in exactly
one way.

A few examples are given in the table below.

m n a b c
2 1 4 3 5
3 2 12 5 13

1/22/2007 Infinitely many Pythagorean triples 5


4 1 8 15 17

We won’t prove this theorem, though we will note that part 1 is rather easy, part 2
a bit harder, and part 3 is a good deal of work.

Exercises:

8. In the theorem, what goes wrong if we take m and n not relatively prime?
What goes wrong if we take them both to be odd?

9. Which of the exercises 1 to 7 become really easy if you know this


theorem?

[F] Fibonacci (Leonardo of Pisa), Leonardo Pisano Fibonacci: The Book of Squares,
an annotated translation into Modern English by L. E. Sigler, Academic Press,
Boston, 1987.
[O 1778] Ozanam, Jacques, Récreations mathématiques et physiques, vol. 1,
Jombert, Paris, 1778. Available online at Gallica, http://gallica.bnf.fr.
[O 1844] Ozanam, Jacques, Science and Natural Philosophy: Dr. Hutton’s
Translation of Montucla’s edition of Ozanam, revised by Edward Riddle, Thomas
Tegg, London, 1844. Available online at The Cornell Library Historical
Mathematics Monographs, http://historical.library.cornell.edu/math/index.html.

1/22/2007 Infinitely many Pythagorean triples 6

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