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Which of the following are true?

1:for every positive integer m, there is a positive integer n such that m+n+1 is a perfect square.

2:for every positive integer m, there is a positive integer n such that mn+1 is a perfect cube

3:for every positive integer m, there is a positive integer n such that m+n+1 is a perfect cube

4:for every positive integer m, there is a positive integer n such that mn+1 is a perfect square

2 Answers 2

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I'll do the first one, which should help on (3)...

Given some m $\geq 1$
Consider $(m + 1)^2 = m^2 + 2m + 1$
The left hand side $(n + m + 1)$ will equal a perfect square (namely, $m^2 + 2m + 1$) if we let n = m^2 + m > 0

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    @Harsh: That's fine! Notice that I explicitly stated that our value of n was positive. When you try a similar approach to (3), can you come to such a conclusion?2011-03-15
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Second is easy too. Let's assume that $mn+1$ is a perfect cube and recall that $(a + 1)^3 = a^3 + 3a^2 + 3a+ 1$. If both of them are equal we get $(mn + 1) = a^3 + 3a^2 + 3a+ 1$ which is the same as $mn = a(a^2 + 3a + 3)$. This means that for every m if you take $n = m^2 + 3m + 3$ then $mn+1$ will be a perfect cube.

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    And this answer will help on (4)... which should read "square" at the end??2011-03-14