
Diophantine equation
Problem 66
Published on Friday, 26th March 2004, 06:00 pm; Solved by 8716Consider quadratic Diophantine equations of the form:
x2 – Dy2 = 1
For example, when D=13, the minimal solution in x is 6492 – 13
1802 = 1.
It can be assumed that there are no solutions in positive integers when D is square.
By finding minimal solutions in x for D = {2, 3, 5, 6, 7}, we obtain the following:
32 – 2
22 = 1
22 – 3
12 = 1
92 – 5
42 = 1
52 – 6
22 = 1
82 – 7
32 = 1
Hence, by considering minimal solutions in x for D
7, the largest x is obtained when D=5.
Find the value of D
1000 in minimal solutions of x for which the largest value of x is obtained.