Thursday, October 28, 2010

PUZZLE: SQUARE NUMBERS

I've been a bit negligent with my math puzzles lately, so here's a frustrating one to make up for it:

Name two numbers with the following properties:

  • The square of the first number plus the second number equals 11.
  • The square of the second number plus the first number equals 7.
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3 comments:

  1. Gary ChapinOctober 28, 2010 at 11:21 AM

    3 and 2! I did it! I did it!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thomas L. McDonaldOctober 28, 2010 at 11:25 AM

    Congratulations! Wow. Now give me 5 more. (Just kidding. I have no idea if there even are five more.)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Gary ChapinOctober 28, 2010 at 12:34 PM

    There would be an infinite number of these. For example

    The square of the first number plus the second = 91
    The square of the second number plus the first = 109

    or (and I'm keeping the first and second numbers sequential, which may not have been the intention of the original puzzle)

    The square of the first number plus the second = 2863
    The square of the second number plus the first = 2969

    These are insanely easy to generate. Not so easy to figure out.

    ReplyDelete

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