1
$\begingroup$

Related to the question about Triples of positive integers $a,b,c$ with rational $\sqrt{\frac{c-a}{c+b}},\sqrt{\frac{c+a}{c-b}}$?, I'm interested in whether there is a way to get satisfying tuples $\left(a,b,c\right)$ in lexicographical order by an index.

The sequence is easily enumerable through iteration: $$ \left\{ \begin{align} &\left(a,b,c\right)\\ &: c \in [1, \cdots, \infty] \land b \in [1, \cdots, c-1] \land a \in [1, \cdots, b-1] \\ &\mid \, \left( \sqrt{\frac{c-a}{c+b}} \in \mathbb{Q} \right) \land \left( \sqrt{\frac{c+a}{c-b}} \in \mathbb{Q} \right) \end{align} \right\} $$

but if you want the 1 billionth tuple, that is a lot of I-think-probably unnecessary work. Is there a way to directly calculate a tuple given an index into the lexicographically-sorted sequence?


Edit: Working on this some myself, I realized that it would probably be far easier to index the tuples by lexicographical order if we used $\left(c,b,a\right)$, since $c > b > a > 0$. This would be fine also.


Edit2: Just to reiterate (from the other thread) something I've found helpful, writing the equations as: $$ \left\{\begin{align} q \times r^2 &= (c-a)\\ q \times s^2 &= (c+b)\\ t \times u^2 &= (c+a)\\ t \times v^2 &= (c-b) \end{align}\right.\\ $$ where $$ \begin{align} \{a, b, c\} &\in \mathbb{Z}\,\land\,(0

  • 2
    If i get something simple i will let you know. the one simple thing not mentioned at the earlier question is that this question is the same: $(c-a)(c+b)$ and $(c+a)(c-b)$ are integer squares. Most examples have $a=b,$ from Pythagorean triples. The original question required $b > a,$ so those did not come up2017-01-24
  • 0
    @WillJagy: I want tuples satisfying the other question, with $0 < a < b < c$2017-01-24
  • 0
    @WillJagy As the author of said question, I'm irked that I didn't notice that second characterization; for one, it'd have meant I didn't have to use so many \frac's!2017-01-25
  • 2
    @Semi Stop \frac'ing now2017-01-25

0 Answers 0