It took me almost 5 minutes to do this. Can someone help with a faster method? Here is how I did it:
Given that 945 = a^2 - b^2 = (a+b)(a-b)
both a and b are integers.
Now this above info tells us that 945 can be expressed as products of 2 quantities. These 2 quantities are (a+b) and (a-b). Since and b are integers, we know that a+b and a-b will be integers as well.
Thus, essentially it is the product of two factors of 945.
Let, a+b = p and a-b = q
Therefore, 945 = p*q
Since, 945 is not a perfect square, it has even number of factors.
The total number of factors of 945 can be found and when divided by 2, we can get number of pairs of p and q.
945 = 3^3*5*7
Thus no. of factors is (3+1)(1+1)(1+1) = 4*2*2 = 16
Thus pair p and q is 16/2 = 8
I almost fell into a trap here. The above formula only gives us the number of positive factors. For 8 pairs of positive p and q, we will also have 8 pairs of negative p and q (eg: 27*35 = 945 and (-27)*(-35) = 945 as well)
Thus, total number of pairs of p and q will 16.
now we will need to find a and b.
since p=a+b and q=a-b, lets try a few pairs of factors to see if we see any patterns
Let, p = 27 and q = 35
thus, a+b =27
a-b = 35
If we solve the above equations, we get a = 36, b. = -9. So for a single pair of p and q, we get a single corresponding value of a and b
I tried a couple of pairs just to be sure. You can try that as well.
Thus, for 16 pairs of p and q, we get 16 corresponding pairs of a and b.
I almost fell for another trap here. Since we are asked for ordered pairs, we will need to multiply the above number (16) by 2 to get the final answer which is 32.
Thus, (D) 32 is the answer
Please let me know if there is a faster method to do this