Infinite descent
MOPSS
Mathematics Olympiad
Problem Solving Sessions
MOPSS
Department of Mathematics
IISER Bhopal
[Link]
Suggested readings
• Evan Chen’s advice On reading solutions, available at [Link]
[Link]/2017/03/06/on-reading-solutions/.
• Evan Chen’s Advice for writing proofs/Remarks on English, available at
[Link]
• Notes on proofs by Evan Chen from OTIS Excerpts [Che25, Chapter 1].
• Tips for writing up solutions by Edward Barbeau, available at https:
//[Link]/barbeau/[Link].
• Evan Chen discusses why math olympiads are a valuable experience for
high schoolers in the post on Lessons from math olympiads, available at
[Link]
List of problems and examples
1.1 Exercise (Moscow Mathematical Olympiad First Round 1949
Grades 7–8 P3) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
1.2 Exercise (Kürschák Competition 1983 P1, AoPS) . . . . . . 2
1.3 Exercise (BStat-BMath 2012 P5, AoPS) . . . . . . . . . . . 3
§1 Infinite descent
Exercise 1.1 (Moscow Mathematical Olympiad First Round 1949 Grades
7–8 P3). [PK74, Problem 52.3] Show that the only solution of the equation
x2 + y 2 + z 2 = 2xyz
for x, y, z in integers is x = y = z = 0.
Exercise 1.2 (Kürschák Competition 1983 P1, AoPS). Rational numbers x, y
and z satisfy the equation
x3 + 3y 3 + 9z 3 − 9xyz = 0.
Prove that x = y = z = 0.
Walkthrough —
(a) Show that if a, b, c are integers satisfying
a3 + 3b3 + 9c3 = 9abc,
then 3 divides a, and (b, c, a/3) also satisfies the above equation.
(b) If (x, y, z) is a non-trivial integer solution to the given equation with
|x| + |y| + |z| minimum, show that x is nonzero, and that y, z, x/3 is also
a solution to the given equation.
Solution 1. Note that if x, y, z are rational numbers satisfying the given
equation, then dx, dy, dz also satisfy the equation for any positive integer d.
Hence, it suffices to prove that there are no integer solutions to the given
equation other than the trivial solution x = y = z = 0.
Claim — If (a, b, c) are integers satisfying
x3 + 3y 3 + 9z 3 = 9xyz,
then 3 divides a, and (b, c, a/3) also satisfies the above equation.
2
References Typos may be reported to jpsaha@[Link].
Proof of the Claim. Note that 3 divides a3 . Since 3 is a prime, it follows that
3 divides a. Using
a3 + 3b3 + 9c3 = 9abc,
we obtain a 3 a
b3 + 3c3 + 9 = 9bc .
3 3
This completes the proof of the claim.
Let (x, y, z) be a non-trivial integer solution to the given equation with
|x|+|y|+|z| minimum. Note that x is nonzero, otherwise, y, z satisfy y 3 +3z 3 =
0, which is impossible since y, z are integers. By the above claim, it follows
that y, z, x/3 is also a solution to the given equation. Using that x is nonzero,
we obtain
x
|y| + |z| + < |x| + |y| + |z|,
3
which contradicts the minimality of |x| + |y| + |z|. This shows that there are
no non-trivial integer solutions to the given equation. ■
Remark. The method used in the above solution is known as infinite descent.
The idea is to show that if there is a non-trivial solution to the given equation,
then there is a smaller non-trivial solution. This leads to an infinite sequence
of smaller and smaller non-trivial solutions, which is impossible for positive
integers.
Exercise 1.3 (BStat-BMath 2012 P5, AoPS). Let m be a natural number
with digits consisting entirely of 6’s and 0’s. Prove that m is not the square of
a natural number.
Walkthrough —
(a) Note that if any such number is a perfect square, then its last digit cannot
be 6, that is, it is not congruent to 6 modulo 10, because no square is
congruent to any of 6, 66 modulo 100.
(b) It follows that if any such number is perfect square, then it is divisible
by 100.
(c) Apply induction (on what?). A crucial step would be frame an inductive
statement appropriately.
References
[Che25] Evan Chen. The OTIS Excerpts. Available at https : / / web .
[Link]/[Link]. 2025, pp. vi+289 (cited p. 1)
Some style files, prepared by Evan Chen, have been adapted here. 3
[Link]
[PK74] G. Pólya and J. Kilpatrick. The Stanford Mathematics Prob-
lem Book: With Hints and Solutions. Dover books on mathematics.
Teachers College Press, 1974. isbn: 9780486469249. url: https :
//[Link]/books?id=Q8Gn51gS6RoC (cited p. 2)
4 The content posted here and at this blog by Evan Chen are quite useful.
