Height

The height of a rational number is defined to be the greater of the absolute values of its numerator and denominator in lowest terms.

If $\gcd(m,n)=1$, then $H\left({\frac {m}{n}}\right)=\max(|m|,|n|)$.

Height is used in the method of infinite descent to prove that some property is true of all rational numbers, when it can be shown that the property is true of any rational number whenever it is true of all rational numbers of lesser height.

Example program

This program will iterate an outer loop over H, the height, and then an inner loop over all rational numbers X of height H.

This example outputs all rational points on the curve

$y^{2}={\frac {-7}{17}}x(x-5)(x+5)(x+1)$

with an x-coördinate whose height does not exceed 1000.

C++. Requires flags “-lgmpxx -lgmp” passed to compiler to link.

#include <iostream>
#include <gmpxx.h> // CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS = -lgmpxx -lgmp

int main(int argc, char **argv) {
    mpq_class X, Y, Y2;
    mpz_class H, N, D, n, d;
    for(H = 1; H <= 1000; ++H) {
        for(N = -H, D = 1; D > 0;
            N == -H && D < H ? ++D : N < H ? ++N : --D )
        {
            X.get_num() = N; X.get_den() = D; X.canonicalize();
            if (X.get_den() < D) continue; // not in lowest terms
            Y2 = mpq_class(-7,17)*X*(X - 5)*(X + 5)*(X + 1);
            if (Y2 < 0) continue;
            n = sqrt(Y2.get_num()); Y.get_num() = n;
            d = sqrt(Y2.get_den()); Y.get_den() = d;
            if (Y*Y != Y2) continue;

            std::cout << X << ", " << Y << std::endl;
        }
    }
    return 0;
}

-1, 0
0, 0
-5, 0
5, 0
9/5, 168/25
5/16, 525/256
-17/5, 168/25
1/24, 385/576
25/9, 700/81
20/31, 3150/961
-35/27, 1400/729
-85/53, 8400/2809
121/48, 19019/2304
-175/67, 25200/4489
595/131, 115500/17161
-605/129, 77000/16641
-625/601, 231000/361201