A3.9

Number Theory | Part II, 2004

(i) Find a solution in integers of the Pell equation x217y2=1x^{2}-17 y^{2}=1.

(ii) Define the continued fraction expansion of a real number θ>1\theta>1 and show that it converges to θ\theta.

Show that if N>0N>0 is a nonsquare integer and xx and yy are integer solutions of x2Ny2=1x^{2}-N y^{2}=1, then x/yx / y is a convergent of N\sqrt{N}.

Typos? Please submit corrections to this page on GitHub.