Q4 Use Euclid’s division lemma to show that the square of any positive integer is either of
the form 3m or 3m + 1 for some integer m.
[Hint : Let x be any positive integer then it is of the form 3q, 3q + 1 or 3q + 2. Now square
each of these and show that they can be rewritten in the form 3m or 3m + 1.]
Let x be any positive integer.
It can be written in the form 3q + r where and r = 0, 1 or 2
Case 1:
For r = 0 we have
x2 = (3q)2
x2 = 9q2
x2 = 3(3q2)
x2 = 3m
Case 2:
For r = 1 we have
x2 = (3q+1)2
x2 = 9q2 + 6q +1
x2 = 3(3q2 + 2q) + 1
x2 = 3m + 1
Case 3:
For r = 2 we have
x2 = (3q+2)2
x2 = 9q2 + 12q +4
x2 = 3(3q2 + 4q + 1) + 1
x2 = 3m + 1
Hence proved.