LAUNCH How many solutions are there to the linear equation, 3x + 6y = 4?

Give three examples of

ordered pairs (x, y) that are solutions to this equation. Do any of your ordered pairs consist of x and y
values that are both integers? Can you find such a solution? Why or why not?

If you decided that it was impossible to find an integer solution to the equation 3x + 6y = 4, you might
already have an idea about why this was the case. You might also be wondering if there is a general
method to immediately tell whether a linear equation has any integer solutions. This next section, will
indeed satisfy your curiosity as it will focus on an area of algebra, solving linear equations that has an
interesting relation to the number concepts developed in this chapter. An equation like 2x + 1 = 5 has
only one solution, namely x = 2. An equation like x + y = 11, has infinitely many solutions, like x = 2, y = 9,
x = 3, y = 8, x = 4.2, y = 6.8, and so on. All the solutions of this equation can be pictured. They lie on the
line which results when we graph x + y = 11. That line is graphed in Figure 2.11 below.

Consider the following problem. Example 2.45 A man purchases 14 cents worth of stamps consisting of 4
cent stamps and 5 cent stamps. How many of each did he buy? Solution. It does not take a lot of thought
to figure out that he had to buy one 4 cent stamp and two 5 cent stamps. Yet if we wanted to, we could
have set up an equation to model this situation as follows: If x is the number of 4 cents stamps
purchased, then the cost of these stamps is 4x and, if y is the number of 5 cent stamps purchased, then
the cost of these stamps is 5y. The total expenditure on stamps is 4x + 5y and this must be 14. So 4x + 5y
= 14. (2.24) Now, had we blindly written this equation, we could have said, “Oh, this equation has
infinitely many solutions, so there must be many ways of purchasing the stamps to make 14 cents.” But,
at once we realize that this equation is different from the x + y = 11 equation above in that this is a
practical problem. The number of each type of stamp can only have nonnegative values. Furthermore,
they must be integers. In addition, once x exceeds 4, the cost of the stamps is already more than 14. So
this limits us further. The point is that x can only take on integer values from 0 to 3 and y can only take
on integer values from 0 to 2. Letting x = 0, 1, 2, 3, and solving for y in each case using equation (2.24)
above, we see that the only value of x that.
makes y integral is x = 1, and in this case, y = 2. So, there is only one solution to this practical problem. A
Diophantine equation is an equation whose solutions we require to be integers. (This was extensively
studied by the mathematician Diophantus.) They need not be linear as eqution (2.24) above. They can
be quadratic, cubic, or anything else. Thus, x2 = y3 + 1 is a Diophantine equation provided we require
our solutions to be integers. Furthermore, we are not even requiring that the solutions be positive
integers. They can be any integers, although in a specific problem only positive integers may make
sense. Diophantine equations can have any number of solutions from 0 to infinity. Let us consider a few
of these. We will only consider linear Diophantine equations. Example 2.46 Find all integer values of x
and y that satisfy 2x + 4y = 7. Solution. On careful analysis, it is easy to see that there are no integral
solutions to this equation; for, if x and y are integers, then 2x is divisible by 2, 4y is divisible by 2, hence
2x + 4y is divisible by 2. Thus their sum can never be 7 since 7 is not divisible by 2. So, this equation has
no solution. This example illustrates the general principle that, if the greatest common divisor of a and b
does not divide c, then the Diophantine equation ax + by = c has no solution. At the opposite extreme
we have: Example 2.47 Solve the Diophantine equation 3x + 4y = 7. Solution. We must remember that,
when we use the word Diophantine, we are requiring that our solutions be integers. It almost jumps out
at us that x = 1 and y = 1 is one solution. But are there more? Actually, in this case there are infinitely
many integer solutions, and they are x =1+4t and y = 1 − 3t for ANY integer t. (We will explain later
where this came from.) We could try different values of t and see that this works, but it is so much easier
to substitute these into the original equation and see that it works. Here are the steps. 3x + 4y = 3(1 +
4t) + 4(1 − 3t) = 3 + 12t + 4 − 12t = 7. Done! The astute reader may have noticed that our general
solution above x =1+4t and y = 1 − 3t consisted of two parts— our initial solution, x = 1, y = 1, and
multiples of t that were the coefficients of the equations but in reverse order. The solution for x involved
the coefficient of y, and the solution for y involved the coefficient of x in the original equation but with
opposite sign. Is it always true that, if we can find one integral solution to a linear Diophantine equation,
that we can find infinitely many integral solutions and that they are of this form? The answer is, “Yes.”
Let’s examine one other example before giving the general result.

Example 2.48 Consider the equation 3x − 4y = 8. One integer solution is x = 4 and y = 1. Show that this
Diophantine equation has infinitely many integer solutions. Solution. Guided by what we did above, we
try x = 4 − 4t and y = 1 − 3t where t is any integer. We substitute into the equation and see that 3x − 4y =
3(4 − 4t) − 4(1 − 3t) = 12 − 12t − 4 + 12t = 8. So it works. You should now be able to show that the
solutions of any linear Diophantine equation are obtained in this way and you will be asked to do that in
Student Learning Opportunity 1. We state this as a theorem. Theorem 2.49 If (x0, y0) is a solution of the
Diophantine equation ax + by = c, where a, b and c are integers, then x = x0 + bt, y = y0 − at are also
integer solutions of this equation for any integer t. Note: One can easily get insight into this theorem by
remembering something that is taught in secondary school. Students are taught to plot lines by first
finding a point (x0, y0) on a line and then using the slope to find another point. Slope is rise run . Let us
illustrate. If we want to graph a line passing through the point A = (1, 2) with slope 3 5 , starting at A = (1,
2), we rise 3 and move over 5 to the right and we will get another point, B on the line. Now, from that
point, we again rise 3 and move over 5 to the right and we will get another point, C, on the line. (See
Figure 2.12 below.)

We can rise as many times as we want, say t times, as long as we run t times, and we will get new points
on the line. That is, points on the line are given by x =1+5t (the original x plus t runs of 5) and y =2+3t
(the original y plus t rises of 3). Now getting back to our Diophantine equation ax + by = c, the slope is −a
b . Starting at the point (x0, y0) on the line, we run t times a quantity b

and rise −a times to yield a new point on the line. That new point is x = x0 + bt and y = y0 − at. This is
essentially why the theorem holds. So, we know how to generate infinitely many integer solutions if we
have one. But how do we even know if we have one solution? After all, if we have no solutions, then we
are wasting our time looking. The following theorem gives us our answer. Theorem 2.50 If a and b are
relatively prime integers, then ax + by = c where c is an integer, always has integral solutions. Proof. By
Corollary 2.31, we can find integers x0 and y0 such that ax0 + by0 = 1. If we multiply both sides of this
equation by c, we get that cax0 + cby0 = c or, put another way, that a(cx0) + b(cy0) = c. Thus, the
integers cx0 and cy0 both solve the given equation. If a and b are not relatively prime, then ax + by = c
will have a solution only if gcd (a, b) divides c. We leave that as a Student Learning Opportunity. We now
turn to the question of how we find a particular solution of ax + by = c. There are two approaches to this,
which are essentially the same. One is with modular arithmetic. Let us give the mod free approach first.
Example 2.51 Find a particular integral solution of 6x + 5y = 13. Solution. We begin by solving for y in
terms of x. We get y = 13 − 6x 5 = 23 5 − (11 5 )x. We now separate off the integer part of each term on
the right leading to y =2+ 3 5 − (1 + 1 5 )x y =2+ 3 5 − x − 1 5 x or y = 2 − x + 3 − x 5 . Now x needs to be an
integer. This implies that the term 2 − x, which occurs on the right of the above equation, is an integer.
This means that the only way y on the left will be an integer is if 3 − x 5 on the right is an integer. We can
try different integer values for x (between 0 and 4) and see which makes 3 − x 5 an integer, but it is
obvious that x = 3 does the job. Substituting this into our original equation, we see that y = −1 is a
solution. So (3, − 1) is a solution. Now we can find infinitely many other solutions as we did above by
letting x =3+5t and y = −1 − 6t for any integer value of t. This method that we used above always works,
but we can make it much shorter than we did above. What we did above was just for illustration.
Starting with y = 13−6x 5 , we divide the numerator by 5 and consider only the remainders. When 13 is
divided by 5, a 3 is left over. When 6x is divided by 5, there is 1x left over, but we keep the negative sign.
Thus, the remaining expression is 3 − x. This must be divisible by 5. And now we proceed as before.

Let’s take another example. Example 2.52 Solve 5x − 3y = 7 (2.25) for integer values of x and y. Solution.
Solving for y we get y = 5x − 7 3 . Now, when 5x is divided by 3, 2x is left over. When 7 is divided by 3, 1 is
left over, but we keep the negative sign. So, the left over is 2x − 1, which must be divisible by 3. Trying x
= 0, 1, 2, we see that x = 2 works. Substituting into equation (2.25), we see that y = 1. Now we can
generate infinitely many solutions: x = 2 − 3t and y = 1 − 5t. Now let us present the mod approach to this
same problem. We can work with either mod 3 or mod 5, since both of these are coefficients of the
variables. Let us work with mod 3 since what we did above was essentially working with divisibility by 3.
We first observe that any multiple of 3 is ≡ 0 mod 3, thus 3y is congruent to 0 mod 3. Also, 5x ≡ 2x mod
3. Thus, 5x − 3y ≡ (2x − 0) mod 3, or just 2x mod 3. Similarly, the right side of equation (2.25), 7, is ≡ 1
mod 3. Thus, when we "mod” both sides of equation (2.25) by 3, equation (2.25) becomes, 2x ≡ 1 mod 3.
(2.26) Now we can just substitute numbers in for x, say 0, 1, and 2, and we see right away that x = 2
solves the mod equation ( 2.26). Thus, one solution is x = 2, just as we got before. Now we just
substitute into equation (2.25) and get y = 1. Let us do one last example. Example 2.53 Find integer
solutions to the equation 13x − 7y = 9. Solution. In order to eliminate y, we “mod” out everything mod 7,
realizing that 13x ≡ 6x mod 7 and 7y ≡ to 0 mod 7 and 9 ≡ 2 mod 7 and we get 6x ≡ 2 mod 7. Now we
only have to use values of x from 0 to 6 to find a solution. We see that x = 5 works. So, when we
substitute this into our original equation, we get y = 8. Hence all solutions are x = 5 − 7t, y = 8 − 13t.
There is a fine point that we have left out. We said that, if we could find one solution of a linear
Diophantine equation, ax + by = c, then we could find infinitely many others, as we showed above. But
we never showed that the solutions we generated by the above method represent ALL the integral
solutions. We do that next.

Theorem 2.54 If (x0, y0) is a solution of the Diophantine equation ax + by = c, where a and b are
relatively prime, and c is also an integer, then all solutions of this equation are of the form x = x0 + bt, y =
y0 − at where t takes on all integer values. Proof. We will show that, if (x1, y1) is any integral solution of
ax + by = c, then x1 = x0 + bt, y1 = y0 − at for some t. That is, x and y are of the desired form. Now, since
(x1, y1) satisfies ax + by = c, ax1 + by1 = c. (2.27) Also, since (x0, y0) is a solution of ax + by = c, ax0 + by0
= c. (2.28) Subtracting equation (2.28) from equation (2.27) we get a(x1 − x0) + b(y1 − y0) = 0, which
implies that a(x1 − x0) = −b(y1 − y0)). This last equation can be rewritten as: (x1 − x0) = b(y0 − y1) a .
(2.29) Now the left side of equation (2.29) is an integer being the difference of integers, so the right side
must also be an integer. Since a and b have no common factors, y0 − y1 must be divisible by a, for the
a’s to divide out and give us an integer. This means that (y0 − y1) = at for some t. The terms can be
rearranged to y1 = y0 − at. Substituting this into equation (2.29) we get (x1 − x0) = b a (y0 − (y0 − at)) = bt
which, when rearranged, gives us, x1 = x0 + bt which is what we wanted to show.