Inspired by Jihoon Kang

Prove or disprove that the following number is prime:

16125116251 \frac{ 16 ^ {125} - 1 } { 16 ^ {25} -1 }


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#NumberTheory

Note by Calvin Lin
6 years, 2 months ago

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Comments

Let a=1625a=16^{25}, then the number is a51a1=1+a+a2+a3+a40(mod5) (a1mod5)\dfrac{a^5-1}{a-1}=1+a+a^2+a^3+a^4\equiv 0(\mod{5})\ (\because a\equiv 1\mod {5}) This shows that there is nothing sacrosanct about 162516^{25} anything that has a remainder 11 modulo 5 (in general nn) will do.

Samrat Mukhopadhyay - 6 years, 2 months ago

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"Sacrosanct" is such a beautiful word. Well done, too.

Jake Lai - 6 years ago

We see that 16125=(15+1)125=1+15125+625()1(mod54)1612510(mod54) 16^{125} = (15 + 1)^{125} = 1 + 15 \cdot 125 + 625(\ldots ) \equiv 1 \pmod {5^4} \Rightarrow 16^{125} - 1 \equiv 0 \pmod {5^4}

And 1625=(15+1)25=1+2515+125()1(mod53)162510(mod53)16^{25} = (15 + 1)^{25} = 1 + 25 \cdot 15 + 125 (\ldots ) \equiv 1 \pmod {5^3} \Rightarrow 16^{25} - 1 \equiv 0 \pmod {5^3}

But 1625=(15+1)25=1+2515+625()376(mod54)16251≢0(mod54)16^{25} = (15 + 1)^{25} = 1 + 25 \cdot 15 + 625 (\ldots ) \equiv 376 \pmod {5^4} \Rightarrow 16^{25} - 1 \not \equiv 0 \pmod {5^4}

So there's more powers of 55 that divides the numerator than the denominator, thus the number is divisible by 55.

Pi Han Goh - 6 years, 2 months ago

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Alternatively, you could use Fermat's little theorem in Lines 1 and 2 (Line 2 is logically unnecessary, anyway): 16125=2500=2ϕ(625)1(mod625)16^{125}=2^{500}=2^{\phi(625)}\equiv1 (\mod 625) .

Otto Bretscher - 6 years, 1 month ago

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Haha, nice! I post this in a rush without proofreading it! Obviously the simplest way is to do Samrat's way. By the way, it's Euler's totient function, not Fermat's little theorem.

Pi Han Goh - 6 years, 1 month ago

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@Pi Han Goh As a Swiss, I should be ashamed of myself to cite Fermat rather than my countryman Euler ;) I guess I was in a rush too...

Otto Bretscher - 6 years, 1 month ago

Obviously the number is an integer because letting z=255z = 25^5 , we get

z251z1=z24+z23++z+1=(z24+z23+z22+z21+z20) +(z19+z18+z17+z16+z15) +(z14+z13+z12+z11+z10) +(z9+z8+z7+z6+z5) +(z4+z3+z2+z1+z0)=(z4+z3+z2+z+1)(1+z5+z10+z15+z20) \begin{aligned} && \frac {z^{25}-1}{z - 1} \\ &=& z^{24}+z^{23} + \ldots + z + 1 \\ &=& (z^{24} + z^{23} + z^{22} + z^{21} + z^{20} )\\ & \ & + (z^{19} + z^{18} + z^{17} + z^{16} + z^{15} ) \\ & \ & + (z^{14} + z^{13} + z^{12} + z^{11} + z^{10} ) \\ & \ & + (z^{9} + z^{8} + z^{7} + z^{6} + z^{5} ) \\ & \ & + (z^{4} + z^{3} + z^{2} + z^{1} + z^{0} ) \\ &=& (z^4 +z^3+z^2+z + 1)(1 + z^5 + z^{10} + z^{15} + z^{20} ) \\ \end{aligned}

Which is factorization of two integers, so it's not prime.

Note that with enough patience, one could show that it is divisible by 101101 by Fermat's little theorem and exponentiation by squaring but it's a little bit tedious.

Pi Han Goh - 6 years, 2 months ago

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Oh ooops. Typo. Fixed!

The question has to be much more interesting than that ...

Calvin Lin Staff - 6 years, 2 months ago

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I just proved it, essentially the same proof as the earlier problem :). I won't spoil it for others. But I will leave a rather interesting hint:

Think about the square of a sum of the first 3 terms of a geometric progression, with the first term 1 and common ratio 162516^{25}

Jihoon Kang - 6 years, 2 months ago

That is a really nice proof for the earlier unedited version . Thank you for sharing that. What I really like about your proof is that it also proves the edited version :)

Jihoon Kang - 6 years, 2 months ago

One could also show that 912519251 \frac {9^{125}-1}{9^{25} - 1} is composite. Letting x=925x = 9^{25}

It will simplify to this too: x4+x3+x2+x+1x^4 + x^3 + x^2 + x + 1

Using the algebraic identity

x4+x3+x2+x+1=(x2+x+1)2x(x2+2x+1)=(x2+x+1)2x(x+1)2=(x2+x+1)2925(x+1)2=(x2+x+1)2350(x+1)2=(x2+x+1)2(325(x+1))2=(x2+x+1+325(x+1))(x2+x+1325(x+1)) \begin{aligned} x^4 + x^3 + x^2 + x + 1 &=& (x^2 + x+ 1)^2 - x(x^2 + 2x + 1) \\ &=& (x^2 + x + 1)^2 - x(x+1)^2 \\ &= &(x^2 + x+ 1)^2 - 9^{25} (x+1)^2 \\ &=& (x^2 + x + 1)^2 - 3^{50} (x+1)^2 \\ &=& (x^2 + x + 1)^2 - (3^{25}(x+1))^2 \\ &=& (x^2 + x + 1 + 3^{25}(x+1)) (x^2 + x + 1 - 3^{25}(x+1)) \\ \end{aligned}

It can be easily shown that (x2+x+1325(x+1))±1 (x^2 + x + 1 - 3^{25}(x+1)) \ne \pm 1 .

Because (x2+x+1325(x+1)) (x^2 + x + 1 - 3^{25}(x+1)) and (x2+x+1+325(x+1)) (x^2 + x + 1 + 3^{25}(x+1)) are neither  ±1 \ \pm 1 , then their product is definitely not a prime number.

Pi Han Goh - 6 years, 2 months ago

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You wrote : x^2 + 2 x + 1 instead of x^2 + x + 1 at the 4th line

Gamal Sultan - 6 years, 1 month ago

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x4+x3+x2+x+1=(x2+x+1)2x(x2+2x+1) x^4 + x^3 + x^2 + x + 1 = (x^2 + x+ 1)^2 - x(x^2 + 2x + 1) is correct.

Pi Han Goh - 6 years, 1 month ago

If I am not mistaken, any time 6 is multiplied by itself, the resulting number's last digit will always be six. Subtracting 1 will leave 5 as the last digit, and any integer with 5 as its last digit is divisible by 5. Please correct me if I am wrong, as I only come on this site to learn.

Matthew Ramirez - 6 years, 2 months ago

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OH MY GOODNESS THAT SAYS 16. IGNORE THE PREVIOUS COMMENT.

Matthew Ramirez - 6 years, 2 months ago

1

Ziad Mohamed El Doadoa - 6 years, 2 months ago

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Note that the exponents are different, so it doesn't evaluate to 1.

Calvin Lin Staff - 6 years, 1 month ago

16-1/16-1=1

MC Tuazon - 6 years, 2 months ago

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Note that the exponents are different, so it doesn't evaluate to 1.

Calvin Lin Staff - 6 years, 1 month ago

Scratch that, it appears to check out.

Matthew Ramirez - 6 years, 2 months ago

the answer is 16^50+16^25+1 16 leaves a remainder of 1 when divided by 3. Therefore any power of 16 leaves a remainder 1 when divided by 3. Therefore the expression is divisible by 3 and hence is not prime.

Anand Santhanakrishnan - 6 years, 1 month ago

Haha :) I guess I can prove it

Jihoon Kang - 6 years, 2 months ago

answer is 1,048,576

MC Tuazon - 6 years, 2 months ago

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2^1=2, 2^2=4 ,2^3=8, 2^4=16 2^5=32, therefore 2 will come again after every 4 times, now (16)^125=2^500,(dividing 500 by 4 means remainder will zero imply the unit digit of 2^500 will gives 6, now if we subtractions 1 from 6 we will get 5 and similar way id case of denominator we will get the unit digit 5 . now as the numerator is > denominator with unit digit 5 in both the cases . therefore numerator will divisible by denominator which imply the fraction will not be a prime number it will be a composite number . )

Uday Mondal - 6 years, 2 months ago

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  1. 35÷15 is not an integer.
  2. 75÷15 is an integer and is prime.

Joel Tan - 6 years, 1 month ago
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