[irchans]

BruceZ, Pseudo,

You got the right answers! Number Theory is certainly involved in the "general answer" which is beyond me. Mosteller writes, "... we would be wise to appreciate that this is a problem in the theory of numbers. It happens to lead to a famous result in Diophantine Analysis obtained from Pell's equation."

Pell's equation is

n x^2 + 1 = y^2 .

I don't see how this is related to the sock problem. Mollester gives a reference (Elementary theory of numbers by LeVeque.) If I get some time tomorrow, I will look it up.

Cheers, Irchans