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Integer Ladders

Problem 309

Published on 06 November 2010 at 04:00 pm [Server Time]

In the classic "Crossing Ladders" problem, we are given the lengths x and y of two ladders resting on the opposite walls of a narrow, level street. We are also given the height h above the street where the two ladders cross and we are asked to find the width of the street (w).

Here, we are only concerned with instances where all four variables are positive integers.
For example, if x = 70, y = 119 and h = 30, we can calculate that w = 56.

In fact, for integer values x, y, h and 0 < x < y < 200, there are only five triplets (x,y,h) producing integer solutions for w:
(70, 119, 30), (74, 182, 21), (87, 105, 35), (100, 116, 35) and (119, 175, 40).

For integer values x, y, h and 0 < x < y < 1 000 000, how many triplets (x,y,h) produce integer solutions for w?


Answer:
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