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Ask HN: Pure Math Problem

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Ask HN: Pure Math Problem

#1
I'm reading A Course of Pure Mathematics, by G. H. (Godfrey Harold) Hardy – available free on Gutenberg. In the first chapter he presents the following problem (on rational numbers):

If λ, m, and n are positive rational numbers, and m > n, then λ(m^2 − n^2), 2λmn, and λ(m^2 + n^2) are positive rational numbers. Hence show how to determine any number of right-angled triangles the lengths of all of whose sides are rational.

I'm not asking the solution, but I'm not sure what he means by "any number of right-angled triangles"

Re: Ask HN: Pure Math Problem

#7
"any number" means that you must be able to produce two triangles if asked for two, three if asked for three, four if asked for four, 7 trillion if asked for 7 trillion, etc. Effectively, you have to be able to generate infinitely many (technically: aleph-0) Pythagorean triangles.

Aside: I do not think that is a the nice problem, as there are way easier ways to generate aleph-0 such triangles (I think most mathematicians would agree the simplest is 3x,4x,5x for x in {1,2,...}) But that is not what this question is hinting at.