My, What Large Numbers You Are

Consider a sequence of integers, where the n t h n^{th} term is given by ( n + 1 ) ( n + 3 ) ( n + 5 ) ( n + 7 ) ( n + 9 ) . (n+1)(n+3)(n+5)(n+7)(n+9). What is largest integer that is a divisor of all numbers in this sequence?


The answer is 15.

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2 solutions

The number should be odd since there are nunbers in the sequence that are not even. Evaluate a 1 = 2 4 6 8 10 = 2 8 15 a_{1} = 2\cdot 4\cdot 6\cdot 8\cdot 10 = 2^{8} \cdot 15 . Im going to prove that in any term of the sequence there will appear the factors 3 3 and 5 5 . The final digits can be one of these: in some order: 1 , 3 , 5 , 7 , 9 1, 3, 5, 7, 9 or 2 , 4 , 6.8 , 0 2, 4, 6. 8, 0 . Obviously the ones enting with 5 5 and 0 0 are divisible by 5 5 . But what about three? We can subtitute some n n of the forms 3 x 3x 3 x + 1 3x + 1 or 3 x + 2 3x + 2 . For the first case the second term would give 3 x + 3 3x + 3 . The second case, the third term gives 3 x + 6 3x + 6 . For the third case, the fifth term gives 3 x + 9 3x + 9 . Therefore there will always appear the factors 3 3 and 5 5 and thus all the terms will be divisible by the answer: 15 \boxed{15} .

In an sequence of consecutive even / odd numbers, every third number is a multiple of 3 and every 5th number is a multiple of 5. In the given series every term is a product of 5 consecutive even/ odd numbers. Therefore, every term is divisible by 3 as well as 5.

Devasish Basu - 7 years, 1 month ago

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Thanks. Nice approach..

Niranjan Khanderia - 7 years, 1 month ago
Akash Deep
Apr 23, 2014

if the nth term is expressed as = (n+1)(n+3)(n+5)(n+7)(n+9) , then the first term can be expressed as = (1+1)(1+3)(1+5)(1+7)(1+9) which has prime factorization 2,2,2,2,3,2,2,2,2 and 5 and then the second term of this sequence can be written as = (2+1)(2+3)(2+5)(2+7)(2+9) which has prime factorization 3,5,7,9,11 then we find out the common factors between the prime factorization of first and second term of a sequence which would be the largest common integer that is 3 * 5 = 15

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