Tom takes two sequences and . Tom divides the term of the first sequence by the term of the second sequence. For how many values of is the result an integer?
This section requires Javascript.
You are seeing this because something didn't load right. We suggest you, (a) try
refreshing the page, (b) enabling javascript if it is disabled on your browser and,
finally, (c)
loading the
non-javascript version of this page
. We're sorry about the hassle.
The nth term for the first sequence is ( 2 n ( n + 1 ) ) 2 and the nth term of the second sequence is 6 n ( n + 1 ) ( 2 n + 1 ) .
After dividing, the answer simplifies to 2 ( 2 n + 1 ) 3 n ( n + 1 ) . This has to be an integer.
g c d ( 2 n , 2 n + 1 ) = 1 so g c d ( n , 2 n + 1 ) = 1
Also, g c d ( 2 n + 2 , 2 n + 1 ) = 1 so g c d ( n + 1 , 2 n + 1 ) = 1
Therefore, for 2 ( 2 n + 1 ) 3 n ( n + 1 ) to be an integer, 2 n + 1 ∣ 3 .
So n = 1 .
Looking back at the sequences, we see that when n = 1 , we get 1 1 = 1 which is an integer, so there is one value for n.