Short proofs of the universality of certain diagonal quadratic forms

In a paper of Kim, Chan, and Rhagavan, the universal ternary classical quadratic forms over quadratic fields of positive discriminant were discovered. Here a proof of the universality of some of these quadratic forms is given using a technique of Liouville. Another quadratic form over the field of discriminant 8 is shown universal by a different elementary approach. Received: 30 October 2007