Brute force might work

Find the largest even number which cannot be expressed as a sum of two odd composite numbers.


The answer is 38.

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1 solution

Jesse Nieminen
Aug 5, 2017

Let n > 38 n > 38 be an even integer.

Now, all of n 35 , n 27 , n 25 n - 35, n - 27, n - 25 are odd integers greater than 3 3 , and one of them is divisible by 3 3 and thus composite.

Thus, n n can be expressed as a sum of two odd composite numbers since 35 , 27 35, 27 and 25 25 are all odd and composite.

Hence, the largest candidate is 38 38 which indeed cannot be expressed as a sum of two odd composite numbers.

This seems to be a case of a solution based on already knowing what the answer was. Surely, you did not start out with the condition "Let n > 38 n > 38 be an even integer." From scratch, how do we go about solving this?

Zach Abueg - 3 years, 10 months ago

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The thought behind this is that if an even integer n n cannot be expressed as a sum of two composite numbers, then for every odd composite number 0 < k < n 0 < k < n , n k n - k is non-composite, meaning that it is 1 1 or prime. Now, we just need to find n n such that there exist an odd prime p p such that there exist an odd composite number k < n p k < n - p of each remainder class of p p meaning that one of n k n - k 's is divisible by p p and greater than p p so n = k + n k n = k + n - k can clearly be expressed as sum of two odd composite numbers.

Here we start checking case p = 3 p = 3 and after we find 35 , 27 35, 27 and 25 25 we have our upper bound of 38 38 which after checking is found to be the solution.

Jesse Nieminen - 3 years, 10 months ago

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However, I don't need to include my thought process in a solution, since it is perfectly valid without it and omitting the thought process gives readers who didn't manage to solve the problem a chance to learn more by trying to think what the solution writer was thinking in order to find the solution, which is useful since most solutions out there don't have the thought process included.

Jesse Nieminen - 3 years, 10 months ago

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@Jesse Nieminen Yes, now we have the right idea. Thank you, Jesse :)

Zach Abueg - 3 years, 10 months ago

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