3H03 Assignment 2

Question 1
Find all solutions to the linear Diophantine equation 172x + 20y = 100

Using the All Solutions theorem from class, we must first find one solution to the equation (using
Euclid's algorithm):
gcd(172, 20) ⇒ 172 = 20 ⋅ 8 + 12
20 = 12 ⋅ 1 + 8
12 = 8 ⋅ 1 + 4 ⇒ Remainder 4
8=4⋅2+0

Use this to calculate ℓ for later:

c 100
ℓ= = = 25
d 4
Now, work backwards:
gcd(172, 20) = 4 ⇒ 4 = 12 − 8 ⋅ 1
= 12 − 1 ⋅ (20 − 12)
= 12 ⋅ 2 − 20
= −20 + 2 ⋅ (172 − 8 ⋅ 20))
= −20 + 2 ⋅ 172 − 16 ⋅ 20
= −17 ⋅ 20 + 2 ⋅ 172

So one solution is (x0 , y0 ) = (2, −17). This means that a solution to 172x + 20y = 100 is
(ℓ ⋅ x0 , ℓ ⋅ y0 ) = (25 ⋅ 2, 25 ⋅ −17) = (50, −425).

Now that we have one solution, we can plug into the All Solutions theorem done in class:
b a
x = ℓ ⋅ x0 + t , y = ℓ ⋅ y0 − t , t ∈ Z
d d
= 50 + 5t = −425 − 43t

Question 2
172
Find the continued fraction of 20 .

Using a simplified version of the steps shown in the question,

 172/20 ai Remainder Simplified Reciprocal

43/5 8 3/5 3/5 5/3

5/3 1 2/3 2/3 3/2

3/2 1 1/2 1/2 2

2 2 0 0 stop

Therefore, the continued fraction can be written as:

1
8+
1 + 1+1 1
2

Question 3
How many men, women, and children are there in the given problem?

From the question, we can deduce that:

1
100 = 3x + 2y + z , x + y + z = 100 , x, y, z ≥ 0
2
where x, y, z represent number of men, women, and children respectively. We can rewrite the
second equation as:
z = 100 − x − y

And plug it into the first equation to get:

1
100 = 3x + 2y + (100 − x − y)
2
⇔ 200 = 6x + 4y + 100 − x − y
⇔ 100 = 5x + 3y

This is our Diophantine equation. Via inspection, we can see that gcd(5, 3) = 1 and a possible
solution of gcd(5, 3) = 5x + 3y is (x, y) = (−1, 2). Let ℓ = c/d = 100/1 = 100. Then, a solution to
ax + by = c is (ℓx0 , ℓy0 ) = (100 ⋅ −1, 100 ⋅ 2) = (−100, 200).

Given one possible solution, we can use the All Solutions theorem to find all possible values of
x, y and use those values to find the corresponding z :
x = ℓx0 + 3t y = ℓy0 − 5t
, , t∈Z
= −100 + 3t = 200 − 5t

However, since x, y, z ≥ 0, we must set bounds on t. For x, 34 ≤ t ≤ 66 and for y , 20 < t ≤ 40.
Combine these and get the bounds:
 34 ≤ t ≤ 40
It is hinted that there are 7 solutions, so we know that t ∈ {34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40}. Plug in t to find
xandy using the x and y values for each solution, we can find z and therefore find all 7 solutions:
⎧
⎪
⎪
(2, 30, 68), t = 34
⎪
⎪
⎪
⎪
⎪
(5, 25, 70), t = 35
⎪
⎪
⎪
⎪ (8, 20, 72), t = 36
(x, y, z) = ⎨(11, 15, 74), t = 37
⎪(14, 10, 76),
⎪
⎪
⎪
⎪
t = 38
⎪
⎪
⎪
⎪
⎪
(17, 5, 78), t = 39
⎪ (20, 0, 80),
⎩ t = 40

Therefore, all 7 possible solutions are the ones listed above. ■

Question 4
Prove that the continued fraction of fn
fn−1
for n ≥ 1 is the continued fraction with
a0 = a1 = ⋯ = an−1 = 1.

First, we must show the base case n = 1:

f1 1
= ⇒ a0 = 1
f0 1
Now for the inductive step, assume that fn−1
fn−2 holds i.e. an−2 = ⋯ = a0 = 1. This means that fn−1
fn−2
has the form:
fn−1 1
=1+ 1
fn−2 1 + 1+⋯ 1
1

Using this information:

fn fn−1 + fn−2
=
fn−1 fn−1

fn−2
=1+
fn−1

1
=1+ fn−1
fn−2

And we know that:

fn−1 1
=1+ 1
fn−2 1 + 1+⋯ 1
1
Therefore:
fn 1
=1+ 1
fn−1 1 + 1+ 1
1+⋯ 1
1

Therefore, an−1 = an−2 = ⋯ = a0 = 1 ⇒ fn

fn−1 is the continued fraction described in the question.
■