Bound on difference between side lengths of a right triangle whose sides are pairwise coprime

triangles

Consider a right-angled triangle with integer-valued sides $a<b<c$ where a,b,c are pairwise co-prime. Let $d=c-b$. Suppose $d$ divides $a$. Then

a. Prove that $d \leq 2$

b. Find all such triangles (i.e:) all possible triplets a,b,c) with perimeter less than 100

Source

My attempt:

$$a^2 +b^2 =c^2$$

Then,

$$ a^2 = (c-b)(c+b) \tag{1}$$

From the question $a=(c-b)p$ where $p$ is integer:

$$ p^2 (c-b) = (c+b)$$

Now, $c-b$ is a factor of $c+b$

Another observation that I made: It must be that not all sides are odd, this can be concluded from (1), further 'a' can't be odd with $b,c$ even and a,b can't be both even (this would violate the pairwise co-prime criteria as c is also even)

Now… I'm stuck..

Best Answer

Hints for part a:

Show that

  1. $ d \mid c+b$. (Already done by OP)

2. $ d \mid 2c$.

3. $ d \mid 2a$.

3. Since $ \gcd (c,a) = 1$, and using the above, hence $d = 1, 2 $.


Hints for part b:

  1. Recall that the primitive pythagorean triple solution is $ ( m^2 - n^2, 2mn, m^2 + n^2) $.

2. If $ c-b = 1$, show that $(a, b, c) = 2n+1 , 2n^2 + 2n , 2n^2 + 2n + 1 $.

3. If $ c - b = 2$, show that $(a, b, c ) = (2m, m^2 - 1, m^2 + 1)$.