Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-options-ii-course-of-the-university-of-oxford/2013/c2/c/solution

Put . Since , the supplementary laws give and . Therefore .
Both and are three modulo four. Reciprocity for the Jacobi symbol, followed by the supplied remainder, gives
Again both denominators are three modulo four, so
Now and . Consequently
because the nonzero squares modulo five are one and four. Thus , , and finally
The congruence is soluble, with exactly two distinct solutions modulo this prime: a nonzero root and its negative. The computation uses a prime denominator in its final step; a positive Jacobi symbol with composite denominator would not by itself imply solubility.

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