The number 42 can be written as the sum of the squares of 3 different positive integers. What is the sum of these 3 integers?	Choose the correct choice from the following choices:  A) 17  B) 10  C) 15  D) 14  E) 13
I think brute force with some common sense should be used to solve this problem.   Write down all perfect squares less than 42: 1, 4, 9, 16, 25, 36.   Now, 42 should be the sum of 3 of those 8 numbers. Also to simplify a little bit trial and error, we can notice that as 42 is an odd numbers then either all three numbers must be odd (odd+odd+odd=odd) OR two must be even and one odd (even+even+odd=odd).   We can find that 42 equals to 1+16+25=1^2+4^2+5^2=42 --&gt; 1+5+4=10.   Answer: 10.
<result>B</result>
The number 42 can be written as the sum of the squares of 3 different positive integers. What is the sum of these 3 integers?