Skip to main content

A Maple Exploration of Problem 6 of the IMO 88

  • Conference paper
  • First Online:
Maple in Mathematics Education and Research (MC 2020)

Part of the book series: Communications in Computer and Information Science ((CCIS,volume 1414))

Included in the following conference series:

  • 857 Accesses

Abstract

In this paper, we show that by using Maple software, some direct searching computation could derive a solution to Problem 6 of the 1988 International Mathematics Olympiad, which asks to prove that if a and b are integers such that \(ab+1\) divides \(a^2+b^2\), then \((a^2+b^2)/(ab+1)\) is the square of an integer.

Supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China Project No. 11471209.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Subscribe and save

Springer+ Basic
$34.99 /Month
  • Get 10 units per month
  • Download Article/Chapter or eBook
  • 1 Unit = 1 Article or 1 Chapter
  • Cancel anytime
Subscribe now

Buy Now

Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Crew, B.: The legend of question six: one of the hardest maths problems ever. https://www.sciencealert.com/the-legend-of-question-six-one-of-the-hardest-maths-problems-ever. Accessed 14 Jan 2021

  2. AoPSonline: 1988 IMO Problems/Problem 6 - Art of Problem Solving. https://artofproblemsolving.com/wiki/index.php?title=1988_IMO_Problems/Problem_6. Accessed 14 Jan 2021

  3. Mathematics Stack Exchange: Simple solution to Question 6 from the 1988 Math Olympiad, https://artofproblemsolving.com/wiki/index.php?title=1988_IMO_Problems/Problem_6. Accessed 14 Jan 2021

  4. Maths and Musings: 1988 IMO Question Six: Solving the Hardest Problem on the Hardest Test. https://medium.com/cantors-paradise/1988-imo-question-six-2ef095cd23c6. Accessed 14 Jan 2021

  5. Seaborn, J.B.: Generating functions and recursion formulas. In: Hypergeometric Functions and Their Applications. Texts in Applied Mathematics, vol. 8. Springer, New York. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4757-5443-8_11. Accessed 14 Jan 2021

  6. Stover, C., Weisstein, E.W.: Pascal’s Triangle. From MathWorld-A Wolfram Web Resource. https://mathworld.wolfram.com/PascalsTriangle.html. Accessed 27 Mar 2021

  7. Waterloo Maple Inc.: Pascal’s Triangle and it’s Relationship to the Fibonacci Sequence. https://www.maplesoft.com/applications/view.aspx?SID=3617&view=html. Accessed 27 Mar 2021

Download references

Acknowledgment

The authors would like to express their appreciation to the anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments and suggestions.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Zhenbing Zeng .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2021 Springer Nature Switzerland AG

About this paper

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this paper

Zeng, Z., Sun, X., Huang, Y., Xu, Y., Chen, X., Yang, L. (2021). A Maple Exploration of Problem 6 of the IMO 88. In: Corless, R.M., Gerhard, J., Kotsireas, I.S. (eds) Maple in Mathematics Education and Research. MC 2020. Communications in Computer and Information Science, vol 1414. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-81698-8_28

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-81698-8_28

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-81697-1

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-81698-8

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics