Binomial Expansion and Factorials

A = 1 × 2 × × 100 B = 1 × 2 × × 200 \begin{aligned} A &=& 1\times2\times\cdots \times 100 \\ B &=& 1\times2\times\cdots \times 200 \end{aligned}

It's obvious that B ÷ A B\div A is an integer.
Is it also true that B ÷ A ÷ A B\div A \div A is still an integer?

Yes, it is true No, it is not true

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6 solutions

B ÷ A ÷ A = B A A = B A × A = 200 ! 100 ! × 100 ! = ( 200 100 ) B \div A \div A = \dfrac{\dfrac{B}{A}}{A} = \dfrac{B}{A \times A} = \dfrac{200!}{100! \times 100!} = \dbinom{200}{100} , which is necessarily an integer.

Silly me, didn't think of this. Anyway, good one!

Noel Lo - 4 years ago

Same Approach Sir!

Md Zuhair - 4 years, 1 month ago

What is that in the brackets?

Tanmay Sahoo - 4 years ago

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Another way of writing ( 200 100 ) \displaystyle {200 \choose 100} .

Shourya Pandey - 4 years ago

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.... is to write it as 200C100.

Shourya Pandey - 4 years ago

Getting to 200!/(100!)^2 is obvious. No clue what 200C100 means

James Randall - 4 years ago

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This wiki might help.

Brian Charlesworth - 4 years ago

Excellent answer!!

AK GH - 4 years ago

How can a prime number in (100,200) be divisible by another prime number in (1,100)

IMAM SK - 4 years ago

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It doesn't need to be for ( 200 100 ) \dbinom{200}{100} to be an integer. Look for example at ( 6 3 ) \dbinom{6}{3} . The prime number 5 in (4,6) is not divisible by any prime in (1,3), but

( 6 3 ) = 6 ! 3 ! 3 ! = 6 5 4 3 2 1 3 2 1 3 2 1 = 5 4 = 20 \dbinom{6}{3} = \dfrac{6!}{3!*3!} = \dfrac{6*5*4*3*2*1}{3*2*1*3*2*1} = 5*4 = 20 .

Brian Charlesworth - 4 years ago

Though standard to operate left to right, an operation which is not associative should come with parathesis to indicate the other. However, I sympathize with your plight because once you do, the problem becomes mostly trivial.

C M - 4 years ago

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Are you saying that we should actually use parenthesis in the expression " B ÷ A ÷ A B\div A \div A "?

Pi Han Goh - 4 years ago

B/A/A = AB/A = B. The answer should be obvious because A/A - 1.

Richard Rubin - 4 years ago

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B ÷ A ÷ A = ( B ÷ A ) ÷ A B\div A \div A = (B\div A) \div A . It is not true that B ÷ A ÷ A = B ÷ ( A ÷ A ) B\div A \div A = B \div (A \div A) .

Pi Han Goh - 4 years ago
Calvin Lin Staff
May 24, 2017

Here's how to approach the problem without knowing about binomial coefficients.

Let v p ( n ) v_p (n ) denote the largest power of p p which divides n n . This means that p v p ( n ) n p ^ { v_p (n) } \mid n but p v p ( n ) + 1 ∤ n p ^ { v_p (n) + 1 } \not \mid n .
Then, the problem reduces to showing that for all primes, v p ( B ) 2 v p ( A ) v_p (B) \geq 2 v_p (A) .

Claim 1: v p ( n ! ) = n p + n p 2 + n p 3 + v_p ( n! ) = \lfloor \frac{ n} { p } \rfloor + \lfloor \frac{ n} { p^2 } \rfloor + \lfloor \frac{ n} { p^3 } \rfloor + \ldots .
Claim 2: x + y x + y \lfloor x + y \rfloor \geq \lfloor x \rfloor + \lfloor y \rfloor .

(Proof of the claims are left to the reader.) Using these claims, we obtain the desired inequality:

v p ( B ) = 200 p + 200 p 2 + 200 p 3 + 2 100 p + 2 100 p 2 + 2 100 p 3 + = 2 v p ( A ) . v_p (B) = \lfloor \frac{ 200} { p } \rfloor + \lfloor \frac{ 200} { p^2 } \rfloor + \lfloor \frac{ 200} { p^3 } \rfloor + \ldots \geq 2 \lfloor \frac{ 100} { p } \rfloor + 2 \lfloor \frac{ 100} { p^2 } \rfloor +2 \lfloor \frac{ 100} { p^3 } \rfloor + \ldots = 2 v_p (A ).

This got me thinking about generalizing the problem. That is,

Prove that ( k A ) ! (k \cdot A)! divides A ! k A!^k for any positive integer k k .

and

Maximize the value of j j for constant positive integer k k such that ( k A ) ! (k \cdot A)! \divides A ! j A!^j .

Pi Han Goh - 4 years ago

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Yup, that can be proved using multinomial coefficients or by extending my method.

Calvin Lin Staff - 4 years ago

That's not A "Basic" solution, nor is this problem.

Dennis Rodman - 2 years, 1 month ago
Saswata Naha
May 23, 2017

Here, A = 100!

       B = 200!

So , B÷A=200!÷100!

    (B÷A)÷A=200!÷[(100!)(100!)]

                   =200 C 100

It's necessarily integer.

That's pretty neat, how have I not thought of this!

Christopher Boo - 4 years ago

so good! well done!

Vani Jays - 3 years, 8 months ago
Abidur Rahman
Jun 3, 2017

B A \frac{B}{A} = 200 ! 100 ! \frac{200!}{100!} = 101 x 102 x 103 x 104 ... x 197 x 198 x 199 x 200 A = 1 x 2 x ... x 100, the largest value in A, 100, cancels out with the the largest value in B A \frac{B}{A} , so that means logically all the values in A can cancel out with the values in B A \frac{B}{A} as the the values being multiplied are simply incremented by one i.e. 2 can easily cancel out with any of the even numbers, 3 can easily cancel out with any of the multiples of three ... 99 can easily cancel out with 198 as that is 99 x 2 etc.

Yanick Nj
May 27, 2017

Well B/A = 1 x 2 x ...200/1 x 2 x ...100 which you can think of as evaluating to 101 x 102 x ...200. This is because all the factors from 1-100 in B and A cancel each other out. Now any number from 1-100 can be multiplied by another to get a number from 101-200. This means that 101 x 102 x ..200 contains all the factors from 1-100. So if you do 101 x 102 x ...200 / A - you'll get an integer.

Now any number from 1-100 can be multiplied by another to get a number from 101-200.

Intuitively, this is true. But can you prove that it's indeed true?

Pi Han Goh - 4 years ago
Lee-Ann Conlan
May 24, 2017

Breaking down the equation...

A = 100

B = 200

~ thus ~

A = 1

B = 2

So...

B ➗ A = 2 ➗1 = 2

And

B ➗ A ➗ A = 2 ➗ 1 ➗ 1 = 2

~ thus ~ it is true and B➗A➗A is still an integer

No, this is wrong.

A is not equal to 100, B is not equal to 200.

In fact, A A is a 158-digit number, and B B is a 375-digit number.

Pi Han Goh - 4 years ago

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