Calculator Killer

x ! + 11 ! + 10 ! 7 ! × 5 ! × 3 ! = x 2 \large \frac{x! + 11! + 10!}{7! \times 5! \times 3!} \hspace{3mm} = \hspace{3mm} x^2

Find the value of the integer x x satisfying this equation.


The answer is 12.

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1 solution

Andrea Palma
Dec 17, 2015

Note that 7 ! × 5 ! × 3 ! = 10 ! 7!\times 5! \times 3! = 10! so the equation became x ! 10 ! = x 2 12 \dfrac{x!}{10!} = x^2 - 12 Now the first member is integer so x 10 x \geq 10 . Note that x = 10 x = 10 is not a solution so we can be sure that x 11 x \geq 11 . Grouping this way x ( ( x 1 ) ! 10 ! x ) = 12 x \left( \dfrac{(x-1)!}{10!} - x\right) = -12 we have the member in parenthesys is integer (couse x 1 10 x-1 \geq 10 ) and so x x is a (positive) divisor of twelve. Since it must be greater that 10 10 the only divisor of twelve greater than 10 10 is 12 12 itself. Necessarily x = 12 x = 12 . Since (by mere prove) 12 12 is also a solution, we found it is indeed the only solution. :)

If I may ask : what was your thought process for that grouping part ? I find it ingenious. Personally, I found out this problem with a bit of brute force. After finding out the answer was over 10, the answer came quite easily. Was it a brain spark ? Or did you find the answer first and thought of a beautiful solution after ?

Louis LeLouis - 5 years, 5 months ago

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Nice question! Honestly it was quite an instinctive move. I think I automatically realized that since obviously the left side of the equation (factorial) definitely grows much more fast than the right side (polynomial of degree 2) the solutions had to live in a bounded range. So I simply looked at the equation searching how to find fast an upper (and lower) bound for the solutions. After all, finding an upper bound for a solution among Natural numbers is always a "win" in some sense, couse it always reduces the problem in a finite number of "checks".

Andrea Palma - 5 years, 5 months ago

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